the new reform temple of berlin: christian music and jewish ...

THE NEW REFORM TEMPLE OF BERLIN: CHRISTIAN MUSIC AND JEWISH IDENTITY DURING THE HASKALAH

Samuel Teeple

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF MUSIC

August 2018

Committee:

Arne Spohr, Advisor

Eftychia Papanikolaou

© 2018

Samuel Teeple

All Rights Reserved

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ABSTRACT

Arne Spohr, Advisor

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, Israel Jacobson (1768-1828) created a

radically new service that drew upon forms of worship most commonly associated with the

Protestant faith. After finding inspiration as a student in the ideas of the Haskalah, or Jewish

Enlightenment, Jacobson became committed to revitalizing and modernizing Judaism. Musically,

Jacobson’s service was characterized by its use of songs modeled after Lutheran chorales that

were sung by the congregation, organ accompaniment, choral singing, and the elimination of the

traditional music of the synagogue, a custom that had developed over more than a millennium.

The music of the service worked in conjunction with Protestant-style sermons, the use of both

German and Hebrew, and the church- and salon-like environments in which Jacobson’s services

were held. The music, liturgy, and ceremonial of this new mode of worship demonstrated an

affinity with German Protestantism and bourgeois cultural values while also maintaining

Judaism’s core beliefs and morals.

In this thesis, I argue that Jacobson’s musical agenda enabled a new realization of

German-Jewish identity among wealthy, acculturated Jews. Drawing upon contemporary reports,

letters, musical collections, and similar sources, I place the music of Reform within its wider

historical, political, and social context within the well-documented services at the Jacobstempel

in Seesen and the New Reform Temple in Berlin. Although much of this project discusses

general practice rather than specific repertoire, I examine several works composed for these

services: a canata by Johann August Günther Heinroth (1773-1843), a hymn by Jacobson, and the

1815 Hallelujah Cantatine by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I first encountered the topic that would evolve into this thesis over a year and a half ago

while reading Deborah Hertz’s How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and

Assimilation in Berlin, which featured a short section describing what would eventually become

the third chapter of this book. The entire premise of this project is heavily indebted to Hertz’s

theorization of German identity among the acculturated Jews of Berlin, in addition to the work of

Michael A. Meyer, Abraham Z. Idelsohn, Tina Frühauf, and Ruth HaCohen.

I am also beyond grateful to my advisor, Dr. Arne Spohr—he first lent me Deborah

Hertz’s book after he happened upon it in a Detroit bookstore and thought that I would enjoy it.

Beyond that first introduction, Dr. Spohr has been instrumental to my success in countless ways,

but especially through his assistance in translating the many German sources required for this

project. Dr. Eftychia Papanikolaou also offered invaluable support during this process through

her detail-oriented revisions and advice on how best to structure my writing (her suggestion was

usually to get to the point, a reminder that I often require). I am also thankful for the time donated

by Dr. Samuel Adler in helping me find the musical sources most essential to the earliest stages

of my research.

On a more personal note, thank you to Bob and Mary Coffey, two friends and musicians

who for many years sponsored my musical education with a generous scholarship. Lastly, I want

to thank my mother, Sandra Smith, who has been my biggest supporter through 25 years and

three degrees. After sending her the first complete draft the morning that I finished it, she called

me that evening to tell me that she had read through the first five pages and loved what I had to

say. I highly doubt that any other compliment will ever make me feel as accomplished.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 1

CHAPTER I. THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF REFORM JUDAISM ............................ 5

Musical Components of Jewish Worship .................................................................. 5

The Music of the Second Temple and the Aftermath of its Destruction ................... 8

Synagogue Music and European Influence Among the Ashkenazim ........................ 11

Musical Innovations of the Hazzanim ........................................................................ 13

Synagogue Music in Berlin ........................................................................................ 18

Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 21

CHAPTER II. ISRAEL JACOBSON'S AGENDA OF MUSICAL REFORM IN SEESEN 23

The Influence of the Haskalah ................................................................................... 23

Israel Jacobson: Educational and Religious Reform ................................................. 26

The Consecration of the Jacobstempel ...................................................................... 30

Johann August Günther Heinroth’s Cantata .............................................................. 34

Lutheran-Influenced Hymnals of Reform Judaism.................................................... 39

Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 43

CHAPTER III. THE NEW REFORM TEMPLE OF BERLIN, 1815-1823......................... 45

Conversion Crisis among the Bildungsbürgertum ..................................................... 46

1815: First Iteration of the New Reform Temple ...................................................... 53

1816-1823: The New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion ..................................... 57

Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine ............................................................. 62

Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 70

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CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................. 75

APPENDIX A: KOL NIDRE CHANT NOTATED BY AARON BEER (1739-1821) ....... 79

APPENDIX B: WENN ICH, O SCHÖPFER, NO. 1, JACOBSON HYMNAL ................... 81

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LIST OF EXAMPLES

Example Page

1.1 Excerpt from Hashirim asher lish’lomo, Canto Part Book ........................................ 15

2.1 Wenn ich, o Schöpfer, No. 1, 1810 Jacobson Hymnal ............................................... 40

3.1 Excerpt from Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah Cantatine, mm. 136-140 ................. 64

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1.1 Engraving of the Heidereutergasse Synagogue by A.M. Werner, ca. 1720 .............. 20

2.1 Wooden Model, Jacobstempel ................................................................................... 28

2.2 Interior of the Jacobstempel ....................................................................................... 28

2.3 Organ of the Jacobstempel, photographed in 1910 .................................................... 29

2.4 Text to Heilig ist der Herr, Gott Zebaoth, Johann August Günther Heinroth ........... 37

3.1 Converts in Berlin, 1800-1874 (number of cases: 4,635) .......................................... 51

3.2 Proportion of Berlin Jews Converting ....................................................................... 51

3.3 Sketch of the New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion by Isaak Markus Jost ....... 60

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

3.1 Labels from Jost’s Sketch in German and English .................................................... 60

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INTRODUCTION

The assertion that music plays a fundamental role in group identity formation is by no

means a new idea. Many musicologists and ethnomusicologists have investigated the

multifarious ways that music is deployed within a community: it can cement shared bonds,

demarcate boundaries, communicate beliefs, and produce schisms, often all at the same time.

The purpose of this project, which takes as its subject the first iteration of Reform Judaism, is

deeply tied to my own curiosity about how ostensibly simple forms of music can express

complex ideology and negotiate cultural boundaries. To that effect, this thesis will explore the

adoption of Protestant-influenced music within new forms of German-Jewish worship at the turn

of the nineteenth century. Through the course of my study, I will demonstrate that within the

context of the Reformed Jewish service, the use of Christian music served to communicate a new

possibility of German-Jewish identity.

The problem that Reform Judaism arose to solve was that of Jewish subjugation.

Throughout Europe, Jews were commonly considered to be cultural outsiders, a dispersed nation

that was met with toleration at best and violent persecution at worst. Until the late eighteenth

century,1 Jews were not recognized as citizens in any European state and lacked most rights and

protections. Within society, the popular image of the Jew was overwhelmingly negative—not

only in that its qualities were generally undesirable, but that these qualities were defined in

1 Following the French Revolution, France became the first government to grant citizenship to Jews in 1792. Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1995), 112.

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opposition to the Christian ideal.2 In Germany, religion and national identity were linked so

deeply that many considered a German-Jew to be an impossible contradiction.3

With the goal of ameliorating the gap between Christians and Jews, Israel Jacobson

(1768-1828), founder of Reform Judaism, created a radically new service that drew upon forms

of worship most commonly associated with the Protestant faith, including a sermon, German

chorales sung by the congregation, organ accompaniment, and a choir.4 After finding inspiration

as a student in the ideas of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, Jacobson became committed

to revitalizing and modernizing Judaism. Like other wealthy, educated Jews of his time,

Jacobson was deeply committed to German culture; unlike other wealthy, educated Jews,

however, Jacobson was adamant in his desire to remain Jewish and refused to convert to

Christianity.

Musically, Jacobson’s service was characterized by its use of songs modeled after

Lutheran chorales that were sung by the congregation, organ accompaniment, choral singing, and

the elimination of the traditional music of the synagogue, a custom that had developed over more

than a millennium. The music of the service worked in conjunction with Protestant-style

sermons, the use of both German and Hebrew, and the church- and salon-like environments in

which Jacobson’s services were held. Jacobson first instituted his musical and liturgical agenda

in Seesen, where in 1810 he opened a community temple associated with a boys’ school that he

had founded eight years earlier. By 1815, Jacobson left for Berlin where he opened the New

2 Ruth HaCohen, The Music Libel Against the Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 6-9. 3 Deborah Hertz, How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and Assimilation in Berlin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 72. 4 Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1988), 42.

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Reform Temple, an extremely popular service held in a private home.5 Each element of the

newly created reform service worked in concert, simultaneously expressing an affinity with

German Protestantism and bourgeois cultural values while also maintaining Judaism’s core

system of belief and morals. As the primary vehicle for self-edification among worshippers,6 the

music of Jacobson’s Reform service was constructed and employed in ways that specifically

reinforced his mission to bring Judaism in line with German cultural structures.

My primary sources for this investigation come from historical letters, sermons,

contemporary reports, and preserved music associated with Jacobson, the Seesen Temple, and

the New Reform Temple. The journal Sulamith, a vehicle for the cause of Jewish Reform in the

early nineteenth century, is especially important to my project as this journal contains a series of

reports detailing some of Jacobson’s services. Although much of the music used for Jacobson’s

early Reform services has been lost, I have accessed a German-Hebrew songbook published by

Jacobson in 1810 and a recently published work by Giacomo Meyerbeer written to be performed

in the New Reform Temple, the Hallelujah Cantatine. My musical discussions of these pieces

and performance traditions preserved in writing center upon the question, “How does this music

communicate identity?”

In Chapter 1, “The Historical Origins of Jewish Reform,” I consider the changing role of

music within the Ashkenazi synagogue, the European tradition into which Jacobson was born.

Chapter 2, “Israel Jacobson’s Agenda of Musical Reform in Seesen,” provides a contextualized

analysis of how Christian music functioned with Jacobson’s services in Seesen, situating each of

5 Jacobson’s time in Seesen, Berlin, and elsewhere is fully documented by Jacob R. Marcus in Israel Jacobson: The Founder of the Reform Movement in Judaism (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1972). 6 Joachim Frassl, Die Jacobson-Schule in Seesen mit Tempel und Alumnat: Jüdische Architektur als Ausdruck von Emanzipation und Assimilierung im. 19 Jahrhundert (New York: Georg Olms, 2009), 95.

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Jacobson’s changes within his wider ideological framework. Chapter 3, “The New Reform

Temple of Berlin: 1815-1823” describes how the social and political currents of Berlin interacted

with Jacobson’s agenda of reform, while also tracing the relationship between Bildung, the music

of the New Reform Temple, and the aesthetic of devotion.

Jacobson’s decision to wholly remove the traditional music of the synagogue can be

easily read as a gesture toward assimilation, in which a Jew abandons his ethnic, cultural, and

religious background in favor of belonging to the majority.7 Although Jacobson wrote often of

his desire to create a Judaism that was closer in appearance to Christianity, he maintained the

prayers and text that make up the liturgical core of Jewish worship. On an even more

fundamental level, Jacobson continued in his faith at a time when Christian conversions were

rapidly increasing.8 By bringing the music and style of German Protestant worship into the

temple, Jacobson created a form of Judaism that was more fully commensurate with the demands

of German culture and the Prussian state. Through this process, Christian music became a tool to

diminish the antithetical relationship between German and Jewish identities.

7 While scholars such as Michael A. Meyer and Tina Frühauf have insightfully used assimilation-based models to understand the relationship between Jewish Reformers and German culture, I will be discussing this relationship in terms of acculturation. Because assimilation as a process is by definition objective-oriented (with the final result being the absorption of the minority subject by the majority society), it can blur the distinctions between the different strategies of reform and conversion that I examine in this project. By describing Jacobson and other Reformers as acculturated, I intend to underline that their goal was not to be understood as entirely German, but rather to be recognized by Christians and the state as German-Jews. 8 Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 223.

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CHAPTER I: THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF JEWISH REFORM

In order to discern how the New Reform Temple utilized musical elements associated

with Protestantism to articulate a German-Jewish identity, one must first understand the tradition

from which it descended. The music of Jewish worship, even in its current form, is rooted in

practices that precede the Common Era, extending back to the period before the Jews were exiled

from Egypt. As Jews settled in Europe and form stable communities, however, these practices

began to take on aspects of the musical and liturgical cultures surrounding them. The purpose of

this chapter is to address the shifting functions, perceptions, and influences of music within the

synagogue, tracing the lineage of the New Reform Temple from the destruction of the Second

Temple in 70 CE to the gradual transformation of Jewish liturgical music among the Ashkenazi

Jews of Western Europe. The final section of this chapter addresses musical practices within the

Alte Synagoge of Berlin,1 the institutional center of Jewish life in Berlin during the eighteenth

and early nineteenth centuries. After placing the New Reform Temple within its broad religious

and historical context, the reader will more clearly perceive the significance of Israel Jacobson’s

musical liturgy and the relationship between religious music and cultural identity.

Musical Components of Jewish Worship

Necessary to any historical investigation of music within Jewish worship is a working

knowledge of services within the synagogue, the traditional term used for a Jewish house of

1 This synagogue was located on the Heidereutergasse, a street that runs through the historic center of Old Berlin. After a new synagogue was built in 1866, this synagogue became known as the Alte Synagoge (Old Synagogue). During its use, it was also referred to as the Große Synagoge (Great Synagogue), in reference to its size and splendor. Some current scholarship also refers to the building as the Heidereutergasse Synagogue, due to its address. Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 24.

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gathering and prayer.2 To readers more familiar with Christianity, the synagogue is similar in

function to the typical church: it provides the sacred space in which services, rituals, and

ceremonies are held, in addition to serving as a center of learning and a community gathering

place. While the Jewish liturgy includes a variety of services held throughout the week and at

different times of the day (as is customary in many Christian denominations), the prayer service

accorded the most religious importance is that of the Sabbath. Held in the synagogue on Saturday

morning, the service broadly consists of the following sections:

1. P’sukei d’Zimrah (Passages of Song)2. The Prayer Service3. The Torah Service4. The Musaf (Additional) Service

Within the relatively short first section, the hazzan, a cantor that leads the congregation in

prayer, sings a series of benedictions, psalms, and hymns to introduce the service, giving praise

to God before making requests of Him during prayers.3 The central feature of the Prayer Service

which follows is the Amidah (Eighteen Benedictions), in which the congregation first reads each

benediction silently before the hazzan recites each section aloud. The Torah Service is described

by Emanuel Rubin and John H. Baron as “a ritualized mini-drama,” in which the Torah scroll is

removed from the ark, carried through the synagogue, read at the lectern, and returned to the ark

after a second procession.4 During both processions, hymns are sung by both the cantor and the

congregation. The rabbi then presents a sermon that discusses an ethical interpretation of the

reading for the day. The last section of the Sabbath prayer service is the Musaf, in which the

2 Emanuel Rubin and John H. Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture (Detroit: Wayne State University, 2006), 12. 3 In modern Reform Judaism, the hazzan is referred to as a cantor. Since the core of my research addresses Judaism in the early nineteenth century, however, I will be using the older term hazzan. Ibid., 13. 4 Ibid., 16.

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hazzan recites additional prayers and hymns to close the service. At various points, congregants

are called upon to sing in response to or with the hazzan. In some traditions, worshippers are also

encouraged to read aloud to themselves while following the service, mimicking the melodic

motion of the hazzan in a sub-vocalized manner.5

One of the most notable musical features of Jewish worship is cantillation, defined by

Rubin and Baron as “the use of pre-existing musical motives in a song-like declamation of the

bible passages read weekly in the synagogue.”6 Symbolic markings referred to as te’amim are

written underneath each line of text in the Hebrew Bible, illustrating the melodic and syntactical

motion of each syllable or phrase. The set of formalized te’amim in use today were first codified

by Aaron Ben Moses Ben Asher, a scribe from Tiberia in northern Israel, during the first decades

of the tenth century.7 The shape of each te’amim does not designate a specific melodic phrase,

interval, or pitch, but is open to interpretation; Jewish scholar Avigdor Herzog recognizes five

distinct regional traditions, each with their own patterns and tropes.8 The Ashkenazic tradition

found in the US and Central and Western Europe tends to have the “broadest melodic contours”

and associates unique musical phrases with each shape.9 Cantillated texts lack consistent meter

and pulse—each passage is recited in “a kaleidoscopic chain” of melodic motives based on the

reading’s te’anim. Thus, each performance of the same text is unique, differentiated by the

performer’s motivic combinations, but also situated within a common structure that is aurally

recognizable to the trained ear.

5 Ibid., 16-20. 6 Ibid., 67-69 7 Mark Kligman, “Jewish Liturgical Music,” in The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music, ed. Joshua S. Walden (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 89. 8 Avigdor Herzog, “Masoretic Accents,” in Encyclopedia Judaica (New York: Macmillan, 2007), 656-664. 9 Kligman, “Jewish Liturgical Music,” 89.

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The use of cantillation points to Judaism’s original oral tradition—the music of the

synagogue prior to the eighteenth century was largely unrecorded via Western notation. Instead,

hazzanim (the plural of hazzan) relied upon learned melodies, modes, and improvisation in

context with the symbolic te’amim to perform readings and prayers of the day.10

A number of other musical practices within the synagogue utilize this skillset: psalms and

some prayers are sung according to the nusah, or prayers modes, which sound quite distinctive

from the diatonic major and minor scales used within much of Christian polyphony. Hazzanim

were also required to memorize lengthy melodies associated with specific prayers and specific

days; the complete melodies and the prayer modes, though they differ in length, are adapted to

each text in different ways by different hazzanim, contributing to the shifting interpretations at

hand within the music of the synagogue.11 Each type of music described is performed by the

hazzan in a highly characteristic style unique to Jewish worship, one marked by rhythmic

freedom, melisma, monophony, and a purely vocal character.12 Although some Jewish

denominations today allow and encourage the use of instruments during worship, the vast

majority of synagogues prior to the nineteenth century banned any instrument from participating

in prayer services.13

The Music of the Second Temple and the Aftermath of its Destruction

The decision to eliminate instruments from prayer was based in halakhic law originated

in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Temple in

10 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 137-139. 11 Kligman, “Jewish Liturgical Music,” 89-92. 12 Although Jewish Music in its Historical Development is almost 100 years old, Idelsohn’s exhaustive scholarship largely stands up to current standards. This work is still referenced today by most scholars working in the field of Jewish music. Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 112. 13 Frühauf, The Organ and its Music, 12.

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Jerusalem functioned as the center of Jewish holy life: animal sacrifices, an essential aspect of

early Jewish worship, could only be made in the Temple, and many Jews made pilgrimages to

the Temple.14 Synagogues were also extant in this early period, providing a space for prayer,

education, and sacrificial donations.15 In addition to animal sacrifices, services within both the

Second Temple and its predecessor (referred to as Solomon’s Temple) were known for their

impressive vocal and instrumental music, all of which was performed by musicians apart from

the congregation.16 The congregation did play a small role in the ceremony, responding

periodically with sung interjections of “Hallelujah” and “Amen.”17 Many passages in the Bible

describe the impressive music of Solomon’s Temple: the ensemble of “four thousand who

pleased the Lord with instruments” on holidays is mentioned in the Book of Chronicles,18 and

the rededication of the Second Temple was celebrated with “song, cymbals, harps, and lyres.”19

Within the Temple and Jewish culture at large, music was an essential aspect of both ritual and

celebration; singers, drummers, and trumpeters were commonly included in parades, weddings,

and funerals.20

After the Romans violently expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and destroyed the Second

Temple, the surviving rabbis made the collective decision to ban music from worship as a sign of

mourning for the lost Temple. Maimonides, a famous Jewish scholar of the twelfth century,

14 Donald Drew Binder, Into the Temple Courts: The Place of the Synagogues in the Second Temple Period, PhD. Diss., Southern Methodist University, 1997, 2. 15 Ibid., 309. 16 These musicians were referred to in the Bible as Levites, as King David had entrusted the Tribe of Levi with the responsibility of training and providing musicians for use in the Temple. J.A. Smith, “Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?” Music and Letters 71, no. 2 (1990): 167-186, see 167. 17 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 129. 18 Chronicles 23:5, as referenced in Ibid., 26. 19 Nehemiah 12:27-28, as referenced in Ibid., 30. 20 Joshua R. Jacobson, “We Hung Up Our Harps: Rabbinic Restrictions on Jewish Music,” Journal of Synagogue Music 25, no. 2 (1998), 35-38.

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wrote that “The rabbis at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple prohibited playing

any musical instruments, singing songs and making any sound resembling song. It is forbidden to

have any pleasure therein, and it is forbidden to listen to them because of the destruction [of the

Temple].”21

Over time, this ban gradually evolved into a prohibition against the use of instruments in

worship, leading to the dominance of vocal music within synagogue services.22 In order to

preserve the integrity of Judaism while communities of Jews migrated to farther distances, the

remaining rabbis soon agreed on a codified liturgy that, in addition to eliminating instruments,

continued many Temple rites, including “rabbinic-style prayers” and “non-sacrificial temple

rituals like the priestly benediction or blowing of the shofar.”23 Furthering the moral imperative

to separate instrumental music from prayer, instruments were commonly associated with vice,

seduction, and indulgence.24 Community leaders feared, writes Joshua R. Jacobson, that taking

pleasure in music would “distract the Jew from the expected norms of ethical behavior.”25

21 Maimonides, The Law of Fasting, 5:14; as quoted and translated in Jacobson, “We Hung Up Our Harps,” 41. 22 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 36. 23 Ruth Langer, Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015) 37. 24 Jacobson, “We Hung Up Our Harps,” 42. 25 Quoted and translated in Ibid., 41. Until the Renaissance, many Christian leaders also disavowed the use of instrumental music in worship. As noted by James W. McKinnon, this was largely due to the association of instruments with pagan worship and immoral behavior. James W. McKinnon, “Christian Church, Music of the Early,” Grove Music Online, accessed 20 April 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005705.

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Although Western Christian churches gradually integrated the organ into their worship

until use of the instrument became widespread around the eleventh century,26 the majority of

rabbis and Jews continued to disavow the use of instruments within services well into the

seventeenth century. By the late Middle Ages, the aural landscape of the synagogue began to

develop in a manner apart from other worship spaces (especially churches); the ubiquity of

monophonic vocal music, along with the distinctive timbre of the prayer modes and semi-

improvisatory cantillation became markers of sacred Jewish identity that are largely preserved to

this day. In both its absence and presence, music within the liturgy articulated group boundaries

and community identity among Jews.

Synagogue Music and European Influence Among the Ashkenazim

By the tenth century, a community of Jews known as the Ashkenazim27 developed along

the Rhine River in northern France and western Germany in the cities of Mainz, Speyer and

Worms. Over the following centuries, they gradually emigrated into Poland, Russia, and

throughout Eastern Europe—in the years preceding World War II, Ashkenazim accounted for

approximately 90% of the world’s Jewish population.28 In nineteenth-century Berlin, Vienna,

and Hamburg (the cities in which Reform Judaism flourished), Jewish communities were

primarily Ashkenazi; as such, the city synagogues ordered their services in the Ashkenazi rite.29

26 Peter Williams, “Organ,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., vol. 18 (New York: Macmillan, 2001), 587-591. 27 In Hebrew, Ashkenaz refers to Germany, Ashkenazi can refer to a single German Jew or act as an adjective, and Ashkenazim is the plural of Ashkenazi. 28 Yehoshua M. Grintz, “Ashkenaz,” in Encyclopedia Judaica (New York: Macmillan, 2007), 569. 29 While Frankfurt was also home to a major Reform temple and Ashkenazi community and synagogue, Sephardic Jews (a group with roots in Portugal and Spain) had their own synagogue and, in general, wielded more influence in the city than the Ashkenazim. Zvi Avneri and Stefan Rohrbacher, “Hamburg,” in Encyclopedia Judaica (New York: Macmillan, 2007), 295-297.

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Synagogue music within Ashkenazi communities maintained many of the traditional forms,

melodies, and customs, but also absorbed musical influences from the surrounding European

cultures. While some embraced these changes, many others viewed them as a threat to Jewish

community and identity due to the loss of a tradition preserved for thousands of years. As Jewish

communities expanded farther away from each other and their ancestral homeland, a common

liturgy and music helped provide a sense of stability and lineage. The comfort of a communal

identity was especially necessary to the Ashkenazim in the face of disenfranchisement, civic

expulsion, public violence, and widespread prejudice. The music of the synagogue, which served

as the literal vehicle for prayers and worship, was thus a closely-guarded aspect of Jewish

identity and vociferously defended against any who might corrupt its purity with Christian or

secular musics.

Although Ashkenazi Jews often lived separately from non-Jewish populations (whether

by choice or state-enforced policy), cultural exchange between both groups in art, scholarship,

and music was widespread. In Jewish Music in its Historical Development, Abraham Idelsohn

analyzes the relationship between Ashkenazi synagogue music and German song, specifically

through shared melodies and modified scales. While Idelsohn’s method of comparison cannot

provide exact dates or centuries, it is a valuable tool in understanding how Jewish music adapted

specific musical characteristics of the majority culture and vice versa. Within Minnesong, a

genre of secular monophonic song that flourished in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth

centuries, and Church melodies originating in the same period, Idelsohn finds examples of

Jewish scales and melodic motives. Within Ashkenazi melodies of the same period, Idelsohn

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also identifies a considerable number that utilize the major scale, a trait that was associated with

the Minnesong.30

Over the centuries, German influences both subtle and obvious accumulated within

traditional prayers and songs of the Ashkenazim.31 Throughout Western Europe, rabbis and

Jewish authorities were aware of this influence and many viewed it negatively as a sign of moral

degradation that broke from traditional law. Aside from the gradual incorporation of German

musical elements within the liturgy, many hazzanim would also adapt popular non-Jewish

melodies into their performances, a practice that was found in Jewish communities from

Germany to Italy. Rabbi Samuel Archevolt, writing from sixteenth-century Venice, was outraged

by this practice: “How can we justify the actions of a few hazzanim of our day, who chant the

holy prayers to tunes of popular secular songs? While reading sacred texts they are thinking of

obscenities and lewd lyrics.”32 Lay members of the synagogue were also complicit in this

practice—in seventeenth-century Frankfurt, Rabbi Joseph Hahn complained about his

congregation’s habit of using Christian melodies during private worship in the home.33

Musical Innovations of the Hazzanim

Hazzanim, in addition to inserting Christian and secular tunes into their prayers and

benedictions, also adopted popular stylistic traits associated with opera and music of the Church.

30 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 147. 31 It is essential to note, however, that the overall musical character of Jewish worship remained relatively stable in comparison to that of the Church. Until the reforms of the early nineteenth century, the hazzanim largely upheld the traditions of cantillation, prayer modes, and synagogue melodies. 32 Jacobson, “We Hung Up Our Harps,” 43. 33 Idelsohn, 133. The struggle for rabbinical control of private, acculturated worship reflected here will eventually become essential to understanding the success and controversy surrounding the New Reform Temple.

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Salamone Rossi (ca. 1570-ca. 1630), a Jewish composer and musician employed by the Duke of

Mantua, was famous for writing both secular and sacred music in the popular Italian style of the

day. Aside from his work in the court (where he was the only Jewish musician), Rossi served as

the hazzan for the local synagogue and lived in the city’s ghetto, a small neighborhood that Jews

were required to inhabit.34 Although his thirteen books of madrigals, canzoni, and other similar

forms are remarkable in themselves, Rossi’s true innovation was a collection of Hebrew-texted

religious songs titled Hashirim asher lish’lomo (The Songs of Solomon), published in 1623.35

Unlike the monophonic and modal melodies typical of synagogue song, Rossi’s songs were

polyphonic, recorded in Western notation, and, though conservative in their homophony, drew

upon “trio sonata-like textures and Italianate vocal devices.”36 In several motets, however, Rossi

did incorporate sections utilizing the traditional modal style of the synagogue, in which the

congregation or the hazzan would enter the texture.37

Rabbi Leon Modena (1571-1648), an advocate for reformed liturgy in the synagogue,

encouraged Rossi to write Hashirim; realizing that this music would be ill received due to the

prohibitions placed on music in the synagogue, Modena also wrote a long preface to the

publication to defend the songs. Although other rabbis accused Rossi of polluting the synagogue

with Christian music, Modena argued that the songs of Ha-Shirim were “restoring the crown of

music to its original state as in the days of the Levites on their platforms,”38 referring to the

34 Joshua R. Jacobson, “Art Music and Jewish Culture in Late Renaissance Italy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music, ed. Joshua S. Walden (New York: Cambridge University, 2015), 143-145. 35 Iain Fenlon, “Rossi, Salamone,” Grove Music Online, accessed March 8, 2018. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.bgsu.edu:8080/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000023896. 36 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 143. 37 Jacobson, “Art Music and Jewish Culture in Late Renaissance Italy,” 147. 38 Ibid., 153.

15

Example 1.1: Excerpt from Hashirim asher lish’lomo, Canto Part Book39

39 Salomone Rossi, Hashirim asher lish’lomo (Venice: Pietro e Lorenzo Bragadino, 1623).

16

impressive vocal and instrumental music of the Second Temple. Modena’s argument that the use

of non-Jewish music in the synagogue marks a return to musical greatness of the past was

deployed in a very similar manner by Israel Jacobson almost two hundred years later, reflecting

the perpetual nature of the conflict between inner preservation and outward innovation within

sacred Jewish music.

Ashkenazi hazzanim were also criticized for their increasingly virtuosic performances

during this period, as they distracted the congregation and the hazzan himself from the content

and meaning behind the liturgy. Rabbi Herz Treves, rabbi and hazzan in Frankfurt during the

first half of the sixteenth century, wrote that “[Hazzanim] have ceased to be writers of Torah,

Tefillin, Megilloth; nor do they care for the correct grammatical reading nor for the meaning of

the prayers—only for their songs, without regard for the real sense of the words. They neglect

the traditional tunes of their ancestors.”40 Following the rise of opera, hazzanim appropriated

many of the genre’s dramatic techniques to enrapture the congregation, in one case extending the

length of a typically brief prayer (Baruch she’omar) to over an hour. In addition to lengthening

melismas and improvisatory sections, hazzanim emphasized words or phrases with extreme

coloratura, embellishments, repetition, and vocal devices like sobs and trills.41 These innovations

represent an alternative view of the function of music within the synagogue, one concerned with

inspiring feelings of surprise, ecstasy, and excitement in the listener.42

As hazzanim and their congregations became more invested in creating a grandiose

musical environment within the synagogue, instrumental music began to return to a handful of

40 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 204. 41 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 146. 42 The ideal of inspiring emotion through musical performance, often referred to as the Doctrine of the Affections, was powerful during the Baroque period. By depicting one of the passions through music, it was believed that the composer could literally affect the body of the listener, either bringing their emotions into harmony or putting them out of balance.

17

cities. On Friday evenings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the synagogues of Prague

featured organ and a small orchestra to accompany religious songs; this practice was also

imitated in smaller towns like Nikolsburg and Offenbach.43 In cities like Frankfurt, Amsterdam,

Hamburg, and Prague, synagogues began to incorporate choral music at the beginning of the

eighteenth century, a practice that evolved from the traditional vocal assistants known as

meshorerim.44

As expected, many rabbis were highly displeased with these changes and issued orders of

repentance for those who brought non-traditional styles of music into the synagogue.45 Many of

the criticisms levied were primarily concerned with the hazzanim “show[ing] off with sweet

voices and fine singing”46 and thus “neglect[ing] both the traditional tunes and the principal parts

of the ritual.”47 The hazzanim were careful, however, to maintain traditional melodies, modes,

and styles of singing alongside the newly-incorporated European elements. Idelsohn argues that

this point forms the key difference between the gradual “Europeanization” of Ashkenazi

synagogue music explored thus far and the progressive reformers of the early nineteenth century:

[The] activity [of eighteenth-century hazzanim] was but the attempt to satisfy the hunger for music of both singers and public… Despite the opposition of the spiritual leaders and spirited Jews, they gave to the masses what they liked, namely, the music heard in the Christian environment.48

43 In Prague, these performances were forcibly canceled in 1793 due to musicians playing after sunset and breaking the Sabbath. Idelsohn, 205 44 Meshorerim, or singers, were two male vocalists, usually a boy soprano and an adult bass, that would assist the hazzan in singing the prayers. This practice dated from at least the early seventeenth century and continued in some synagogues well into the nineteenth century. These singers would improvise harmonies and also sing virtuosic solos similar to an instrument. Frühauf, The Organ and its Music, 18-22. 45Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 208. 46 Ibid., 208. 47 Ibid., 209. 48 Ibid., 232.

18

On the other hand, reformers like Israel Jacobson made an effort to remove all traces of

traditional synagogue music such as cantillation and the prayer modes in order to realize a new

mode of Jewish worship and German identity. Unlike the ongoing exchange between Jewish and

German culture seen through the changing character of synagogue melodies or the performance

by hazzanim of secular songs in the traditional Jewish style, Jacobson’s innovations were

deliberate and calculated—by transforming the music of Jewish worship, he hoped to transform

the image of Jewish identity itself.

Synagogue Music in Berlin

Before the New Reform Temple was founded in 1815, its home city of Berlin held one of

the most intellectually and culturally vibrant Jewish communities in Western Europe. The origin

of the city’s nineteenth-century Jewish population can be traced to 1671, when Elector Frederick

William invited two wealthy Viennese Jewish families to reside in Berlin. The decision to

reverse the 1572 expulsion and ban of Jews living in the city was in no way altruistic; rather, the

Electorate was in extreme need of funds to restore the military and countryside following the

ravages of the Thirty Year War.49 In addition to their wealth, the Jewish families brought a

number of Jewish domestic staff, rabbis, teachers, and butchers to serve their needs; soon, Berlin

gained a reputation among European Jews for its relatively favorable living conditions.50

The allowances made by the city government, however, did not permit the construction of

a public synagogue until the first years of the eighteenth century. After collecting an exorbitant

amount of money, the Berlin Jews constructed the large and lavishly decorated Alte Synagoge,

49 Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 18. 50 Ibid., 22.

19

which held its first service in 1714.51 The space reflected the wealth and pride of the Jewish

financiers that had funded it: the inside of the synagogue was around 30 feet tall and grandly

decorated, consisting of a vaulted nave with immense windows along three of the four walls.

Carol Herselle Krinsky describes the inner layout as depicted in a contemporary engraving of the

synagogue (Fig. 1.1): “The ceiling’s covered panels rose to a slightly depressed elongated

octagonal panel which emphasized the center of the room, where the large bimah was

placed...The ark was tall and lavishly carved with two tiers of columns and undulating

cornices… The building in Berlin had the bright, clear, and straightforward appearance of a

Protestant church.”52

The central placement of the bimah, the raised platform from which the rabbi read the

Torah, was common in most Ashkenazi synagogues of the time. While the women stood in the

upper gallery, the men sat in horizontal rows of pews to the left and right of the bimah, facing the

intricately-decorated ark on the east wall in which the scroll of the Torah were kept. It was

considered a sign of respect to look toward the ark, the holiest part of the synagogue; the

congregation’s focus was meant to be on the word of God, not the rabbi and cantor responsible

for leading the service.53

The Heidereutergasse Synagoge represented in many ways the traditional practice of

Ashkenazi synagogue music during the eighteenth century. The rabbis of the synagogue were

highly conservative, especially in the face of increasing magical and messianic sects among

51 Ibid., 24. 52 Carol Herselle Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe: Architecture, History, Meaning (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1985), 261 53 Joseph Gutmann and Steven Fine, “Synagogue,” in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 2005), 8920-8926.

20

Figure 1.1: Engraving of the Heidereutergasse Synagogue by A.M. Werner, ca. 172054

54 Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe, 262.

21

Ashkenazim.55 Musically, however, the synagogue became considerably less conventional with

the 1765 appointment of Aaron Beer as hazzan. As one of the first musically-trained hazzanim,

Beer spent much of his career both transcribing and composing prayer settings and synagogue

songs in Western notation. He left behind a collection of over 1,200 compositions taken from a

variety of sources including himself, contemporary composers, and traditional synagogue

music.56

Of particular note is Beer’s version of Kol Nidre, a well-known prayer recited at the

beginning of Yom Kippur that has been set by a number of Jewish composers; Idelsohn notes

that the first version was dated to 1720 and a variation of it to 1783 (see Appendix A).57

The musical line, characteristic in its use of Jewish modes and motives, was intended to be sung

by the hazzan alone, a desire which Beer made explicit in the introduction to a 1791 collection of

synagogue songs for use in the Alte Synagoge.58

Conclusion

Although the traditional music of the synagogue maintained much of its original stylistic

character even into the eighteenth century, non-Jewish cultures and the Jews who advocate for

their value have left their marks, whether subtle or otherwise. As a natural consequence of

55 Underlining the intense orthodoxy among the Berlin rabbis, Hertz relates a 1738 anecdote in which a congregant named Jeremias Cohen was turned away from the Sabbath service due to his shaved face and wig. Hertz also notes the increasing number of complaints from rabbis about Christian dress among Jews during this period. Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 26-31. 56 Rubin and Baron, Music in Jewish History and Culture, 166. 57 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 159-160. 58 Beer’s remarks were given as an explanation for his decision to compose a year-long cycle: “if a person hear a tune but once a year, it will be impossible for him to sing with the cantor during the service, and therefore he will not be able to confuse the hazzan. It has become a plague to the hazzanim to have the members of the congregation sing the song.” Ibid., 218.

22

Jewish migration (although the migration itself was often not elective), the music of the

synagogue absorbed musical aspects from many of the different peoples with which Jews shared

space and cultural ties. The hazzanim, responsible for transmitting the oral tradition of Jewish

music, incorporated popular melodies and vocal techniques that astounded their congregations

and moved them to greater heights of devotion. Some more radical figures, like Salamone Rossi

and Leon Modena, envisioned a synthesis of Jewish and non-Jewish music within the synagogue,

though their work was quickly forgotten.

As the impulse toward national identity began to coalesce at the end of the eighteenth

century, Israel Jacobson began encountering new ideas about civic emancipation, religious

tolerance, and educational reform in the city of Braunschweig. Along with a group of like-

minded advocates, Jacobson founded a series of temples in Seesen, Kassel, and eventually Berlin

that would embody his vision of liturgical and musical reform.

23

CHAPTER II: ISRAEL JACOBSON’S AGENDA OF MUSICAL REFORM IN SEESEN

Before Israel Jacobson moved to Berlin in 1815, he honed his program of religious

reform in Braunschweig, capital city of the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. As a

financier to Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, in 1801 Jacobson used his money and influence to

open a school for Jewish and Christian boys modeled after the ideals of Jewish philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn. After Napoleon captured Braunschweig in 1806 and incorporated it into the

short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia, Jacobson was appointed head of the Jewish Consistory, a

board responsible for managing Jewish affairs in the Kingdom. In this position, Jacobson sought

to enact an agenda of religious reform, opening temples in Seesen, the site of his first school, and

Kassel, where he founded another school in 1808. In this chapter, I will present an overview of

the ideological currents that informed Jacobson’s reforms, outline the music and liturgy of the

1810 consecration of the Jacobstempel (as the temple in Seesen was referred to), and delineate

the relationship between Jacobson’s musical and political agendas.

The Influence of the Haskalah

In the history of Jews in Western Europe, the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth

centuries are regarded as a period of emancipation and cultural transformation, eventually

resulting in the reforms of 1812 and later advances in Jewish rights throughout Western Europe.

The German Enlightenment, or Aufklärung, brought about a new attitude of religious tolerance

among educated Christians, and upper- and middle-class Jews the desire to more fully participate

in mainstream society. One of the most famous figures of the Aufklärung, even among

Christians, was the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), grandfather to Felix

24

Mendelssohn. During the last decades of the eighteenth century, Mendelssohn lobbied for

changes within the Jewish community alongside other Jewish intellectuals, including Isaac

Euchel (1756-1804), Hartwig Wessely (1725-1805), and Isaac Satanow (1733-1805). Through

education and modernization, Mendelssohn and his cohort hoped to create an attitude of religious

tolerance across all aspects of society that would grant equality to the Jews. Centered in Berlin,

this movement became known as the Haskalah (in Hebrew, “wisdom” or “erudition”) and

engendered a revitalization of the Hebrew language and literature through societies, education,

and writing.1

The maskilim, as advocates of the Haskalah were known, looked outward as well as

inward, focusing on the larger and much more challenging task of civic emancipation for the

Jews. Before the nineteenth century, Jews had few if any rights within European states—they

were barred from settling in some cities and, even if they were granted residency, were also

legally restricted to living in certain neighborhoods known in ghettos (as referred to in Chapter 1

during the discussion of Salomone Rossi) and subject to public violence, punitive regulations,

and unforeseen evictions.2 In 1744, for example, Maria Theresa of Austria expelled every Jew

within Prague, Bohemia, and Moravia based on the groundless suspicion that they had worked

with the Prussians during the War of the Austrian Succession.3 In the eyes of European

governments, “no Jew was, or could be, a member of (civil) society. No metter how learned or

1 David Sorkin, “Mendelssohn, Moses,” in Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Oxford: Oxford University, 2002), http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195104301.001.0001/acref-9780195104301-e-446. 2 David Vital, A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939 (New York: Oxford University, 1999), 2-9. 3 Ibid., 1.

25

wealthy or contingently influential he might be within or without Jewry itself, a Jew was held to

belong to a moral and, of course, theological category inferior to that of the meanest peasant.”4

In order to overcome this prejudice and advance the cause of emancipation, some

maskilim advocated for a new system of education that would make Jews more valuable to the

state. Through the creation of free, public institutions like the Jüdische Freischule Berlin,

founded in 1778, maskilim were able to provide an alternative to traditional Jewish schools in

which male students studied religious texts under a rabbi and spoke in Hebrew or Yiddish.

Institutions like the Freischule taught an expanded curriculum of practical skills and trades to

young men in German. By teaching subjects like agriculture and carpentry, the maskilim sought

to divert children from entering the traditionally Jewish career of finance and create a young

generation of Jews who could be productive members of the state. If Jews could be recognized as

adding objective value to wider society, their thinking went, the maskilim could make a much

stronger argument for Jewish emancipation.5

This focus on education and inward change was a perspective shared by Israel Jacobson,

an ardent admirer of Moses Mendelssohn and similar Jewish thinkers. Unlike Mendelssohn,

however, Jacobson believed that Jewish worship itself was in need of reform. Next to the schools

he built in the small town of Seesen and the city of Kassel, Jacobson built his own synagogues,

to which he referred as temples. Within these spaces, Jacobson worked closely with Christian

clergy and local rabbis to create a new form of Jewish worship that brought together the German

language, music influenced by the Lutheran tradition, and Jewish texts and prayers.

4 “Frederick II: The Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia (April 17, 1750),” in Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, 22-27. 5 Isaac Einstein-Barzilay, “The Ideology of the Berlin Haskalah,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 25 (1956): 33-37.

26

Israel Jacobson: Educational and Religious Reformer

As a young Jewish boy growing up in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Jacobson

received a piecemeal and unsystematic education—his father, also a financier, taught him

primarily from sacred Jewish texts and rabbinic literature so that Jacobson could read and write

in Hebrew, but gave little instruction to his son in French, German, and secular topics.6 While

Jacobson went on to attend the University of Helmstedt where he encountered German literature

and philosophers like Mendelssohn,7 many Jewish children received the same or much less

education, especially those from small towns or poor families.8 During his time at the University,

Jacobson came to believe, as Mendelssohn had before, that improving education was the key to

bettering the social and civic status of Jews in Germany. Instead of the isolated liturgical

education provided by rabbis in Hebrew or Yiddish, Jacobson wanted to ground Jewish

education in German language and culture and provide skill-based education in practical fields—

a model that hewed closely to the Judische Freischule.9

Jacobson first enacted these ideals in 1801 by opening a school for boys in Seesen (often

referred to as the Jacobsschule), a small town located on the northwestern edge of the Harz

Mountains in what is today the German state of Lower Saxony. By May 1802, 47 Christian and

Jewish students attended the Jacobsschule; Jacobson also shared Mendelssohn’s belief in

religious tolerance, so coeducation was an essential aspect of his mission.10 In 1809, Jacobson

established a second school in Kassel that shared the same academic mission and program,

providing a free German education in reading, writing, arithmetic, music, and trades to boys

6 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 15. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid., 21. 9 Ibid., 20-22. 10 The Christian boys in attendance were, like the Jewish students, largely from rural and less wealthy families. Jacobson financed the school himself. Ibid., 24.

27

from local Jewish and Christian families. Both schools held abbreviated religious services for

students and parents that used both Hebrew and German; in Kassel, Jacobson removed all

cantillation and chant in favor of recitation and silent prayer. The services would generally

conclude with a German or Hebrew hymn in chorale style sung by the entire congregation.11

Although some religious services were held for students since 1802, Jacobson

constructed and dedicated a public temple directly across from the Jacobsschule in 1810.12 The

exterior of the Seesen Temple (also referred to today as the Jacobstempel in German) was built

in a classicist style with some rococo influences and featured a bell tower and clock, a feature

typical of Protestant churches rather than synagogues.13 Originally, the temple was designed to

resemble a grand church in size and ornamentation, but after local Christians protested the

similarity, the size of the temple was greatly reduced.14 Although the Temple was destroyed in

1938 during the Kristallnacht pogrom, a scale wooden replica of the structure is on permanent

exhibit in the Seesen Municipal Museum (Figure 2.1).

The interior layout of the Jacobstempel was also very similar to contemporary Protestant

churches (Figure 2.2) and unlike traditional synagogues of the time. The most notable feature of

the Temple was the large, impressive organ that was commissioned and built for the Temple

itself (Figure 2.3). Mounted in a loft at the end of the Temple that was opposite to the ark, the

organ, is proportional and balanced in its design, reflecting the Classicist architecture of the

Temple itself.15 Unlike traditional Jewish spaces of worship such as the Alte Synagoge of Berlin,

11 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 38. 12 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 85. 13 Ibid., 86. 14 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 41. 15 Frassl, Die Jacobson-Schule in Seesen, 86-87.

28

Figure 2.1: Wooden Model, Jacobstempel16

Figure 2.2: Interior of the Jacobstempel17

16 “Synagoge,” Jacobson-Haus, http://jacobson.haus/?p=70. 17 Hubert Jahns, “1810-2010: 200 Jahre Synagoge Seesen, 200 Jahre Synagogenorgel,” City Administration of Seesen, http://www.stadtverwaltung-seesen.de/index.php?La=1&&object=tx%7C1601.131.1&kat=&kuo=1&sub=0.

29

Figure 2.3: Organ of the Jacobstempel, photographed in 191018

the Jacobstempel featured a raised lectern for the giving of sermons at the far wall, next to the

ark. The bimah, or reader’s platform, was also moved closer to the ark from its normal position

in the center of the room. These changes served to center the congregation’s vision and attention

on the rabbi, preacher, and hazzan, all of whom occupied the designated spaces at different

points throughout services. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the traditional location of the

bimah in the middle of the synagogue meant that at least half of the congregation was unable to

see the rabbi or hazzan; the congregation’s visual focus on the ark mimicked their mental and

spiritual focus on the Torah and God. One spatial aspect that was maintained in the

Jacobstempel, however, was the separation of men and women; men sat in the main lower level

18 Frassl, Die Jacobson-Schule in Seesen, 87.

30

while women occupied galleries along the three walls of the building that faced the ark.19 Both

the exterior and interior design of the Temple served to reinforce Jacobson’s guiding belief of

equality between Christians and Jews; as Michael Meyer comments, “Taken as a whole, the

structure made a social statement: Jews worship as do Christians; they are their equals in religion

as in civil life. No longer an Oriental, foreign faith transplanted to Europe, Judaism—like

Christianity—is homeborn in the accoutrements of its worship no less than its loyalty to the

state.”20 As I will discuss in the next section, the music of the Jacobstempel underlined this

ideological alignment in a similar manner.

The Consecration of the Jacobstempel

On July 17, 1810, the Jacobstempel in Seesen hosted over 100 guests during its official

consecration, a day-long event extensively chronicled in Sulamith, a periodical which served as a

primary mouthpiece for the early Jewish Reform movement.21 This article, published in the same

year as the consecration, provides a detailed look at the contents of Jacobson’s reform service,

especially in regards to the use of music and German. Here, I will provide a descriptive timeline

19 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 41. 20 Here, Meyer’s use of the descriptor “Oriental” is not in reference to East Asia, but to the Middle East. In his 1944 book Jewish Music in its Historical Development, Idelsohn uses the term to describe musical features more commonly associated with music of the Middle East, such as non-diatonic modes and non-metrical rhythms. Meyer’s statement also adumbrates the widespread belief that Jews were exotic and alien to Europe, a difference that was defined as much by ethnicity as by traditional dress, rituals, and worship. Ibid., 41. 21 Sulamith was founded in 1806 by David Fränkel and Joseph Wolf, two educators associated with the Jewish Free School in Dessau. Both men were also highly influenced by the ideals of the Haskalah. For a more thorough investigation of the ideology of Sulamith, see Benjamin Maria Baader, Gender, Judaism, and Bourgeois Culture in Germany, 1800-1870 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 19-41.

31

of the 1810 consecration paraphrased from the anonymous author’s article in Sulamith, with

discussion and analysis to follow.22

At 8:00 am, the diverse group of attendees began to gather in the schoolhouse in

preparation for the ceremonial procession to the temple. As the bells of the temple began to ring,

the group formed into a ranked parade and headed in silence to the temple’s nave. Jacobson

followed a collection of teachers and students from the Jacobsschule holding flags; behind him in

sequence came the county prefect, fellow members of the Westphalian Jewish Consistory, clergy

and rabbis in their ceremonial clothing, the mayor and vice-mayor of Seesen, local nobility, civil

servants, and finally the remainder of the crowd. In describing the different groups present, the

article’s author emphasizes their diverse social and religious backgrounds as well as the friendly

atmosphere among them. After the attendees were seated, an ensemble of 60-70 singers and

musicians standing in the organ loft performed a short cantata written for the occasion by Johann

August Günther Heinroth (1773-1843), a music teacher employed at the Jacobsschule. Following

the cantata, Jacobson gave a German-language sermon from the bimah in which he laid out the

motivation and justification behind his new temple and service, underlining the ideal of Christian

and Jewish equality and the similarities between both religions.

If the author is correct in his observations, the traditional liturgy used during the Saturday

morning service was heavily foreshortened for the July 17th consecration.23 After his sermon,

Jacobson and a number of assisting rabbis removed the Torah from the ark and completed the

22 “Feyerliche Einweihung des Jacobs-Tempels in Seesen,” Sulamith 3, no. 1 (1810): 298-317. Translation by Dr. Arne Spohr. 23 Jacobson was known for trimming the length of the Sabbath service: he and his fellow members of the Westphalian Jewish Consistory had passed numerous guidelines that removed various rituals and prayers from Jewish worship throughout the Kingdom. He did the same several years later in the liturgy of the New Reform Temple in Berlin, which will be discussed in depth in Chapter 3.

32

traditional processions around the temple. Jacobson then loudly read a selection from the Torah

in both Hebrew and German—this is notable not only for its additional language, but also

because Jacobson recited the text plainly, eschewing the traditional practice of cantillation in

which texts are sung semi-improvisatorially according to specific modes and formulas (see

Chapter 1 for more information on this musical practice). The role of the hazzan, the person

responsible for praying and cantillating the text, was likewise absent from this service and all

others held in the Jacobstempel. Once Jacobson had finished and the Torah was returned to the

ark, Bernard Schott, the director of the Jacobsschule, and Jeremiah Heinemann, a member of the

Jewish Consistory, gave short speeches. In between the two, the congregation, choir, and

musicians sang a chorale with text by Jacobson in Hebrew and German successively,

accompanied by the temple’s large, newly-constructed organ. A final performance by the choir

brought the service to a close, after which Jacobson and the congregation moved to the

schoolhouse for a formal lunch in which celebratory poems were recited. The group then made a

champagne toast to King Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, ruler of Westphalia, accompanied by

kettle drums and trumpets.24

As revealed in his sermon, Jacobson believed that Jews ought to make their mode of

worship more compatible with the surrounding state and culture, removing “the ceremonial

husks” of tradition to “bring forth the original religion in its ancient purity.”25 The musical

character of Jacobson’s new service differed greatly from the typical Ashkenazi service

described in Chapter 1. Perhaps the most radical change made by Jacobson, as noted by Idelsohn,

was that “he abolished the chanting of the Pentateuch and Prophets according to traditional

24 As the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte was appointed ruler of Westphalia after his elder brother conquered and combined a number of states within Northwestern Germany. 25 “Feyerliche Einweihung,” Sulamith; cited and paraphrased in Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 80-81.

33

modes as well as the unrhythmic prayer modes, and together with these he discarded the hazzan.

He himself read the service without any chant, according to the manner of reading the Bible text

and prayers in the Protestant Church.”26

Jacobson, wearing robes similar to those of a Lutheran pastor, also gave a sermon in

German that had a style more typically associated with Protestant preachers—instead of the

moralistic discussion of an ethical issue found in contemporary rabbinical sermons, Jacobson’s

address focused on laying out his image of a new Judaism with a closer relationship to

Christianity.27 While the changes made to Jewish worship under the banner of reform are often

interpreted through a lens of modernization as an attempt to remove the stigma of backwardness

from Judaism, Jacobson and his allies relied on the argument that they were actually seeking to

return the religion to its pure and ancient state. Reformers justified their removal of even codified

practices like cantillation by arguing that they were the gradual result of cultural accumulation,

not an essential aspect of Jewish belief.28 This restorative mindset is further illustrated by

Jacobson’s decision to use the word “temple” instead of “synagogue”—rhetorically, “temple”

signifies an attempt to return to the glory of Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple, and

move away from the negative connotations associated with the synagogue by Christian

Europeans.29 Another benefit to this linguistic turn was that it underlined the common origin and

ethical systems of Judaism and Christianity. Beyond that, this perspective provided a rational

basis to argue for Jewish emancipation by rebutting the image of Jews as an alien population. It

is important to note, however, that in his writings and actions, Jacobson preserved the essential

26 In referring to “unrhythmic prayer modes,” Idelsohn is describing the method of melodic prayer used by hazzanim that is performed outside of a consistent, metrical pulse. Idelsohn, 236. 27 The most striking difference between Jacobson’s sermon and typical rabbinical sermons, however, was that Jacobson used German instead of Hebrew. Meyer, Response to Modernity, 42. 28 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 62-63. 29 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 42.

34

theology of Judaism; while he may have attempted to minimize the differences between both

religions, he never advocated for the taking up of Christian dogmas.

Johann August Günther Heinroth’s Cantata

While Jacobson’s sermon explicitly stated to the congregation his desire to bring

Judaism’s rituals and outward character closer to that of Christianity, the music of the service,

like the design of the tmple itself, provided an essential demonstration of Jacobson’s worldview.

The decision to begin the service with a cantata, a genre almost exclusively associated with the

Lutheran Church in Germany, is especially significant. Johann August Günther Heinroth wrote

the work specifically for the consecration of the Jacobstempel; although he was a Christian, he

served as music instructor at the Jacobsschule from 1804 to 1818 where he also composed and

arranged chorales for Jewish worship.30 Although Heinroth is rarely mentioned in academic

accounts of early Jewish Reform, he played an essential role in Seesen and later Berlin; in

addition to organizing the musical education of the school boys, Heinroth also worked closely

with Jacobson in the arrangement of chorale tunes and other music used within the service.31 The

depth of Heinroth’s relationship to Jewish Reform is at least partially reflected in an 1848

Reform songbook edited by Eduard Kley (1789-1867), a preacher at the New Reform Temple in

Berlin also known for writing hymn texts. After spending two years working with Jacobson in

Berlin, Kley moved to Hamburg where he began an extremely successful temple that followed

Jacobson’s liturgical agenda. In the preface to this collection of melodies for use in the

30 Ulrich Konrad, “Johann August Günther Heinroth: Ein Beitrag zur Göttinger Musikpflege und Musikwissenschaft im 19. Jahrhundert,” in Musikwissenschaft und Musikpflege an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte, ed. Martin Staehelin (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987), 47. 31 Ibid., 47.

35

synagogue, Kley thanks several composers for their contributions, though he wryly notes that all

three of them were deceased by that point—Heinroth was responsible for 11 out of the 90

included in the edition. Although Kley does not include a particular year of composition for any

of the melodies, he indicates that the book is meant as a companion to a collection of song texts

he published in 1818, shortly after leaving Berlin.32 Although Heinroth succeeded Johann

Nikolaus Forkel as music director at the University of Göttingen in 1818, the position for which

he is most commonly remembered, the longevity of his musical settings and respect accorded to

him by Kley indicates that he held a significant role in the music of early Jewish Reform.

In the Sulamith report discussed earlier, the author also mentions that Heinroth’s cantata

was later performed at the nearby Seesen City Church (“Stadtkirche”) for a benefit concert.33

The fact that the cantata was deemed appropriate for performance in both the Jacobstempel and

the local church underlines the close relationship between Jacobson’s Reform and Christianity.

Furthermore, it is likely that the text of the cantata performed at the consecration avoided

expressing specifically Christian or Jewish ideas in order to be suitable for both religious

contexts. A later cantatine, or small cantata, composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer for the services in

Berlin adopted this textual strategy, lending credence to this possibility.

Although I have been unable to locate the title, text, or score of this cantata, a list of

Heinroth’s works compiled by Ulrich Konrad provides clues as to its character. Heinroth’s listed

compositions are primarily small genres and pedagogical in nature, reflecting his background as

32 Eduard Kley, ed., Melodien zu dem Israelitischen Gesangbuche (Hamburg: B.G. Berendsohn, 1848). The use of the word Israelitischen in place of Jewish in the title of this book is part of a larger trend among Reform-minded Jews in the nineteenth century. Many, including Israel Jacobson, referred to themselves as Israeliten or Mosaiten with the goal of shedding the national connotations of “Jew” and more closely aligning themselves with their religious beliefs. This concept is explored in Meyer, Response to Modernity, 30. 33 “Feyerliche Einweihung,” Sulamith;

36

an educator—only one cantata is attributed to Heinroth, Heilig ist der Herr, Gott Zebaoth, which

was performed at the consecration of the Göttingen University Church in 1822 but lacks an

extant score.34 Considering the partly secular nature of this space and the ceremony being

celebrated during this performance, Helig ist der Herr may be similar in style, form, and content

to the cantata Heinroth wrote for the consecration of the Jacobstempel. The text is notable in that

it lacks references to specifically Christian imagery or theology, yet it was composed by a

Christian composer and performed in a church. An English translation of the cantata’s text and

the original German are included below (Figure 2.4).35

Chorus

Holy is the Lord, God Zebaoth! All temples resound of his glory! Let us also here, in this holy space Elevate his glory through song and psalm!

Recitative

Completed is the work to glorify God, Already standing is the altar devoted to him! Congregate, to utter his praise here And adore him humbly. Ah, whoever prays here, His pleading will be heard! Congregate and sing in joyful choirs A song to his praise!

Chorus

Rejoice loudly and sing jubilant choirs At the newly consecrated altar! Only he deserves adoration, praise and honor, Who will be eternally, has been eternally. His name shall resound far and wide, Now and in all eternity.

34 Konrad, “Johann August Günther Heinroth,” 77. 35 Translation by Dr. Arne Spohr.

37

Figure 2.4: Text to Heilig ist der Herr, Gott Zebaoth, Johann August Günther Heinroth36

While it is likely that Heinroth wrote two separate cantatas, and both the music and text

for the first are simply lost, I believe that it is possible that Heilig ist der Herr, Gott Zebaoth is

the same cantata originally written for the consecration of the Jacobstempel. As mentioned

previously, this work is the only cantata listed by Ulrich Konrad in Heinroth’s worklist, both

36 Gesänge bey der Weihe der Göttingischen Universitätskirche abzusingen (Göttingen: Herbst, 1822).

38

cantatas were written for consecrations, and both lack overtly Christian references due to the

mixed denominations of the audiences for which they were performed (a university church, a

Jewish temple with both Christians and Jews present, and a local church benefit). Further

supporting this hypothesis is the short length of Heilig ist der Herr, which would be appropriate

for the introductory function served by the Jacobstempel cantata. Even if this cantata is not the

one that Heinroth wrote for Seesen, its brevity and lack of explicitly Christian imagery or

theology suggest that the Seesen cantata would have likely been similar in form and content.

The designations of “recitative” and “chorus,” common formal structures used within

cantatas, indicate the use of solo voice and chorus, respectively. Helig ist der Herr was also

scored for an orchestra, another generic feature of the cantata that was also seen in the Seesen

cantata; as noted in Sulamith, a large group of 60-70 instrumentalists accompanied the singers.37

With only three stanzas, the work likely lasted ten minutes or less. Although Lutheran cantatas

from the first half of the eighteenth century were known for their length and contrapuntal

complexity, by the late eighteenth century, cantatas in Germany were briefer and freer in form,

often drawing upon the text of Bible verses or simple, hymn-like poems.38

Although a broadly-natured text would be all but necessary to avoid offending the invited

Christians present at the consecration, its use would also signal Jacobson’s commitment to

bringing Christians, Jews, and their religions closer together. The text of Heilig ist der Herr

reflects certain aspects of Jacobson’s beliefs regarding the role of music in Jewish worship: for

example, the phrase “All temples resound of his Glory” not only references Jacobson’s preferred

37 “Feyerliche Einweihung,” Sulamith. 38 Friedhelm Krummacher, “The German Cantata to 1800,” in “Cantata,” Grove Music Online, accessed March 27, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.bgsu.edu:8080/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004748.

39

term for Jewish worship spaces, but also depicts the shared music of worship as a common bond.

The language of musical celebration throughout the text also recalls the jubilant environment and

choirs of the Second Temple, potentially underlining Jacobson’s desire to ostensibly restore

Judaism to its ancient roots.

Lutheran-Influenced Hymnals of Reform Judaism

Another essential musical aspect of the Jacobstempel dedication was the use of chorale hymns

in German and Hebrew, sung by the congregation and accompanied by the organ. The style of

these chorales lacked the traditional markers of Ashkenazic synagogue song like the use of

modes, rhythmic freedom, or melismatic ornamentation. Instead, they were remarkably similar

to those used in Lutheran worship or, in many cases, almost entirely identical, using major and

minor melodies, simple rhythmic motion, and multiple verses. An example of a hymn that may

have been used at this service is seen in Figure 2.1 and Appendix B: Wenn ich, o Schöpfer, No. 1

in Israel Jacobson’s 1810 hymnal titled Hebräische und Deutsche Gesänge zur Andacht und

Erhauung, zunächst für die neuen Schulen der Israelitischen Jugend in Westphalen. In this

hymnal, Jacobson adopted the melodies and texts of popular Lutheran chorales, but included a

Hebrew translation of each German text in a corresponding section of the book (respectively

titled the Hebräische Gesänge and Deutsche Gesänge). In the Hebrew version seen in Figure

2.1, the music is read left to right to match the reading direction of Hebrew. By including both

versions of each hymn, both Christians and Jews, whether or not they knew Hebrew, were able

to sing together during worship. The second and third verses of the text are written below the

music, marked by a two and three in the upper right hand corners of the text. In this example, the

melody is taken from the popular Lutheran chorale Allein Gott in der Höh sei Her, originally

40

Example 2.1: Wenn ich, o Schöpfer, No. 1, 1810 Jacobson Hymnal39

39 Israel Jacobson, Hebräische und Deutsche Gesänge zur Andacht und Erhauung, zunächst für die neuen Schulen der Israelitischen Jugend in Westphalen (Kassel: Waisenhaus Buchdruckerei, 1810). I would like to thank Dr. Joachim Frassl, who shared his images of the hymnal for this project.

41

written in the sixteenth century, while the text setting is more recent, written by Christian

Fürchtegott Gellert in 1757.40

Although only one melodic line is printed in this hymnal, most chorales sung by the

congregation were performed in four-part harmony. In the 1848 Hamburg songbook referenced

earlier, Eduard Kley explains that single melodic lines were often published in books for school

children; their limited range meant that they were usually limited to singing two or three parts, he

writes, while “everyone who is musically educated can, if possible or necessary, easily add a

second voice” or more with the aid of an instrument. Kley later promises to publish a four-part

edition of his songbook for the use of “adults;” however, his wish that more synagogues would

become acquainted with chorale-style congregational singing demonstrates that even by 1848,

this style of singing was not common in the synagogue.41

As the predecessor to Kley’s Melodien zu dem Israelitischen Gesangbuch, Jacobson’s

hymnal represents a considerable shift away from traditional synagogue practice of the time and

toward that of the Lutheran Church. As discussed in Chapter 1, hazzanim of the time like Aaron

Beer were firmly against the congregation joining them in prayer as it “confused” the hazzan.42

Indeed, the partially improvised style of cantillation and synagogue song does not lend itself well

to group participation and was perceived by non-Jewish listeners as noisy and disharmonious—a

trope defined in opposition to the well-organized harmony of Christian music. In her monograph

The Music Libel Against the Jews, Ruth HaCohen explores this dichotomy in part through

40 The German text of Wenn ich o Schöpfer (which is set to the melody of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Her) can be found in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, Geistliche Oden und Lieder (Leipzig: Weidmann,1757). 41 Kley’s explanation for the use of a single melodic line applies to Jacobson’s 1810 songbook from which Example 2.1 was extracted. The full title of the book indicates that it was written “initially for the new schools for Israelite Youth in Westphalia” (“zunächst für die neuen Schulen der Israelitischen Jugend in Westphalen”). 42 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 128.

42

Christian accounts of synagogue visits: upon visiting the Frankfurt Synagogue in the mid-

eighteenth century, for instance, the early-Enlightenment author Johann Christian Edelmann

described the so-called “wailing,” “cat-like noises,” and “goat trills” of the congregation.43 This

discursive trope was applied in countless descriptions of Jewish worship and music, indicating an

underlying set of stereotypes: that Jews were too loud, unclean, uncivilized, and most of all,

undignified.

With these connotations in mind, the reasoning behind Jacobson’s decision to substitute

traditional synagogue music with Lutheran chorales and organ accompaniment becomes clear.

Jacobson felt few compunctions about removing cantillation and traditional synagogue song

from his service—in his mission to improve the spiritual and political welfare of Jews, he

believed that the outmoded musical style of Jewish worship was irrelevant to the moral and

devotional center of Judaism.44 In reforming the music and liturgy of the Jewish service,

Jacobson hoped to bring forth spiritual and devotional feelings that he associated with Christian

worship. The appropriation of Christian music was intended to not only modernize the service,

reflecting the congregation’s nineteenth-century German surroundings, but also to incorporate a

sense of emotional connection that Jacobson often criticized Judaism for lacking.45 As

contemporary rabbis noted, many German Jews were losing their knowledge of Hebrew46 and

could neither understand or participate in the Hebrew prayers and readings that composed the

entirety of Orthodox services.47 The use of German in the children’s services in Kassel, for

43 HaCohen, The Music Libel Against the Jews,133. 44 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 88. 45 A particularly striking example of this rhetoric is seen in Jacobson’s sermon during the Jacobstempel consecration. 46 Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 26. 47 In order to justify their service, Jacobson and his fellow Reformers often relied on the argument that they were engaging Jews who could not be served by Orthodox synagogues because they could not understand German. This argument will be further examined in Chapter

43

example, allowed the congregants to “understand what they are praying, and for this reason

exemplary quiet and holy devotion reign in this synagogue.” 48

Conclusion

The use of organ and chorale represent a direct aesthetic connection to the German

Lutheran tradition; before Jacobson, the organ was a relatively rare sight in most synagogues.49

Beyond this simple association, the organ also served to, in the words of a contemporary Jewish

observer, “regulate the wild synagogue chanting.”50 Here, the organ is imagined as a tool that

can mediate the noise of the synagogue, a clear parallel to the traveler Edelmann’s use of

animalistic language to depict the worship of Frankfurt Jews. The chorale functioned in a similar

manner, organizing the disjunct heterophony of the congregation that would often recite or hum

along with the hazzan into controlled, rhythmic, and harmonious song. Both organ and chorale

served to organize the unruly voices of the congregation into a decorous whole, reflecting

Jacobson’s desire to create a Judaism that more closely resembles Christian worship.51

3. Michael A. Meyer, “The Religious Reform Controversy in the Berlin Jewish Community,1814-1823,” Leo Baeck Insitute Year Book 24 (1979): 142.48 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 38.49 The synagogues of Prague and Venice both made use of organ to varying extents. In Venice,an organ was introduced to a city synagogue in 1628 but quickly removed after a public protest.In Prague, a visitor that attended a Friday evening service around the year 1720 described seeinghazzanim “employ together with themselves other singers of music and organ pipes, as well ascymbals and violins.” At least two of the nine synagogues in the city had organs installed and allused some form of instrumental music on Friday nights; neither instruments or organ, however,were allowed to be played during the Saturday morning Sabbath service. For a thoroughdiscussion on the historical use of the organ in German-Jewish worship, see Tina Frühauf, TheOrgan and its Music in German-Jewish Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).50 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 49.51 Ruth HaCohen describes this widespread practice through the contemporary observations ofEuropean synagogues cited previously. The Music Libel Against the Jews, 133.

44

Until the 1813 dissolution of the Kingdom of Westphalia, Jacobson’s position as

president of the Westphalian Jewish consistory protected his schools and temple and ensured the

enforcement of the less radical reforms he imposed on Jewish congregations in the territory.

Many rabbis, however, were generally unhappy with Jacobson’s changes, especially regarding

the inclusion of German within the service. The prevailing fear, as Rabbi Samuel Levi Egar

wrote in a letter to Jacobson, was that “if we now pray in German here and the Jews of France in

French, those in Italy in Italian—the bundle will come apart.”52 Because the shared language of

Hebrew, like the shared tradition of synagogue music, served to bind together the geographically

disparate Jewish community, any localized change endangered the identity of the communal

whole. Ultimately, other Westphalian congregations declined to adopt the model of the

Jacobstempel and Jacobson lost his power in the region after the Westphalian collapse.53 By late

1814, Jacobson had moved to Berlin, the intellectual center of the Haskalah in which Jews were

regarded as Prussian citizens; drawing once again upon his connections, wealth, and influence,

Jacobson began his reforms anew.

52 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 39. 53 Ibid., 43.

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CHAPTER III: THE NEW REFORM TEMPLE OF BERLIN, 1815-1823

As in his first temples, the musical content of the New Reform Temple in Berlin served

to strengthen Jacobson’s mission to modernize Judaism, bringing the religion closer in

appearance and ritual to Protestantism, thus bridging the gap between Jews and Christians in

Germany. Alhough Jacobson first curated the music and liturgy of Jewish Reform in Seesen and

Kassel, the social, cultural, and political currents within Berlin required a modified approach.

Due to clashes with both Orthodox Jews and King Frederick William III, Jacobson was unable to

hold his service in a public building or synagogue; instead, he relied upon his own apartments

and later the mansion of Amalia Beer (1767-1854) and Jacob Herz Beer (1769-1825), then the

wealthiest Jewish family in Berlin and host to a well-attended salon.1 Although the foundation

of Jacobson’s liturgical and musical reforms stayed intact, the atmosphere and modes of worship

within the highly aestheticized services became increasingly intimate, a development expressed

musically in their son Giacomo Meyerbeer’s 1815 Hallelujah Cantatine, a piece written

expressly for the New Reform Temple.2

Within this chapter, I will explore the ways in which the setting of Jewish Berlin affected

the reforms begun by Jacobson in Westphalia. An unprecedented increase in conversions among

the rich, acculturated Jews of Berlin combined with an already fractious religious environment

allowed the New Reform Temple to find widespread popularity. Additionally, the influence of

the salon contributed to music and worship that was more strongly informed by the model of

1 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 46-47. 2 As a reminder to the reader, I am using Deborah Hertz’s terminology of “New Reform Temple” to refer to both the services held in Jacobson’s apartments and the Beer mansion between 1815-1823. Although contemporary sources often use a variety of names like the Beer Temple or Jacobson’s Temple that differentiate the two based on their location, I believe that using a single title underlines the musical, liturgical, political, and social continuity between both settings.

46

Bildung, a form of self-edification essential to bourgeois German identity. To provide context to

these discussions, I will refer to community statistics, personal letters, a primary account

published in the nineteenth-century journal Sulamith, and contemporary criticism, among other

sources. This chapter will conclude with a detailed stylistic investigation of Meyerbeer’s

Hallelujah Cantatine that illustrates how the bourgeois ideals of Jewish Reform in Berlin were

realized in a musical setting.

Conversion Crisis among the Bildungsbürgertum

In the years predating Jacobson’s arrival, the political activism engendered by the

Haskalah in tandem with an embarrassing Prussian defeat at the hands of Napoleon led to the

1812 Edict of Emancipation, one in a series of governmental reforms.3 This law removed the

excess taxation and housing and business limitations placed on Prussian Jews and also allowed

Jews to serve in a number of state and academic appointments. In recognizing Jews as near full

subjects of the state, the Prussian government also revoked much of the power granted to

rabbinical authorities and courts in governing the Jewish population.4

These changes symbolized the growing participation of Berlin Jews in German society

and culture, especially among the wealthy. Even before emancipation was achieved, the most

3 From 1806 to 1815, Prussian statesmen Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg spearheaded a number of wide-ranging reforms (often referred to the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms) following a large loss of territory and immense tribute payments made to the French. Many of these reforms followed the ideals of the Enlightenment and similar liberal policies made by other European countries. A comprehensive discussion of these reforms can be found in Christopher M. Clarke, “The World the Bureaucrats Made,” in Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2006), 312-344. 4 Some of these permissions were rolled back by King Frederick William III in 1822 when he barred Jews from holding higher ranks in the army and any academic or educational position. “Frederick William III: Emancipation in Prussia (March 11, 1812),” in Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, 141-143.

47

prominent and highly-regarded Jewish families had achieved near social parity with their

Christian counterparts through the shared pursuit of Bildung. Historian Paul Mendes-Flohr

defines Bildung as “the educational ideal of self-cultivation,” a mode of learning which went

beyond the accumulation of knowledge to include inner reflection and appreciation of the arts.5

Because German Jews were consistently perceived as ethnic outsiders, they drew upon their

passion for German culture to solidify their connection to a national German identity. The Jewish

Bildungsbürgertum, as this educated segment of the bourgeoisie was referred to, was the most

highly acculturated segment of the Berlin Jewish population, adopting many of the practices,

ideals, and values of the dominant German culture. Many of these families also changed their

habitual language, one of the most obvious markers of Jewish difference, using German instead

of Yiddish to conduct business and associate in public.6

Jewish women such as Sara Levy (1761-1854), Henriette Herz (1764-1847), and Amalie

Beer hosted private home gatherings known as salons, liberal spaces in which Christians and

Jews from the upper and middle classes would come together to eat, listen to music and poetry,

and discuss political and philosophical issues.7 As an institution, the salon first arose in early

seventeenth-century France as “a prototype of the bourgeois public sphere,” a space which

allowed a shared discourse to develop independent of the monarchy and state power.8 Because

the salon was defined by its domestic space, women known as salonnières were appointed as

hosts and gained both authority and influence; they would guide conversations on topics of

5 Paul Mendes-Flohr, German Jews: A Dual Identity (New Haven: Yale University, 1999), 2. 6 Deborah Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 104. 7 Petra Wilhelmy-Dollinger, “Berlin Salons: Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Century,” Jewish Women’s Archive, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/berlin-salons-late-eighteenth-to-early-twentieth-century. 8 Emily D. Bilski and Emily Braun, “The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons,” in Emily D. Bilski and Emily Braun, eds., Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation (New York: Yale University Press, 2005), 4.

48

society, philosophy, and culture and organize readings and performances. According to the art

historians Emily D. Bilski and Emily Braun, “the salon allowed women to maneuver outside the

univocal identity of their ‘inferior’ sex, to operate visibly within and against patriarchal

authority, and to challenge openly the asymmetrical power relations between men and women.”9

Jewish women of Berlin began to host their own salons in the 1780s, motivated by the

desire to more fully participate within Christian society and European culture.10 Among these

acculturated women, most of whom studied the German language and culture as children,

Deborah Hertz writes, the salon served as “a real-life enactment of the ideal of Bildung,

encompassing education, refinement, and the development of character.”11 Some of the most

prominent Berlin salonnières were known for featuring musical performances from famous

musicians; Amalie Beer hosted musicians like Carl Maria von Weber, Muzio Clementi, Louis

Spohr, and Niccolò Paganini, and even constructed a separate concert hall in her home.12 Within

the salon, music functioned as a common point of culture among Jews and Christians, one of the

constituent aspects of the Jewish Bildungsbürgertum’s claim to German identity. Music, in the

words of musicologist Leon Botstein, also served to “connect the ethical and the aesthetic,”13

facilitating moral development within the listener.

The limited acceptance of some Berlin Jews as demonstrated by the popularity of Jewish

salons and intellectuals, however, was eventually destabilized by the Prussian war effort against

Napoleon and the French. In seeking to define themselves in opposition to the French, many

9 Ibid., 14. 10 Ibid., 16. 11 Deborah Hertz, Jewish High Society in Old Regime Berlin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 3. 12 Bilski and Braun, “The Power of Conversation,” 40. 13 Leon Botsein, “Music, Femininity, and Jewish Identity: The Tradition and Legacy of the Salon,” in Jewish Women and Their Salons, Bilski and Braun, 166.

49

Prussian citizens began to develop a new concept of national selfhood defined by Christian

belief, German ethnicity, and devotion to the Prussian state. During the French occupation of

Berlin, sermons delivered by theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), one of the key

figures associated with liberal German Protestantism, served to tie the groundswell of nationalist

fervor to the Lutheran Church.14 Within this landscape, an inchoate form of German identity

became deeply allied with Protestantism, a development that was felt acutely by wealthy and

educated Jews who moved within liberal circles. Ideas about the superiority of Germanic peoples

and their cultures, especially in comparison to the French and the Jews, were also gaining

traction in Berlin due to early nationalist figures like Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), the

German Idealist philosopher, and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), leader of the gymnastics

movement.15 While many Jews of the Bildungsbürgertum were previously able to claim German

heritage through their adoption of German art, literature, theater, and music, the nascent

nationalist consciousness cast all Jews as ethnic and religious outsiders.

As an alternative to the acculturated Jews’ concept of Germans as a people defined by

shared cultural values, ethnically German politicians, activists, and writers began to articulate a

new model of national identity that essentially excluded Jews from membership. The phrase

Volk, or people, developed as a shorthand to refer to a constellation of German identity defined

by “some combination of historical memory, geography, kinship, tradition, mores, religion, and

language.”16 Many Germans believed that Jews needed to convert to Christianity in order to even

consider themselves German, let alone achieve emancipation; this sentiment was expressed

14 Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 69. 15 Ibid., 71. 16 Brian C.J. Singer, “Cultural Versus Contractual Nations: Rethinking Their Opposition,” History and Theory 35, no. 3 (1996): 309-337, see 311; cited in Mendes-Flohr, German Jews, 16.

50

rather violently by Fichte who wrote in 1793: “I see absolutely no way of giving [Jews] civic

rights; except perhaps, if one night we chop off all of their heads and replace them with new

ones, in which there would not be one single Jewish idea.”17

At the same time, many acculturated Jews of the Bildungsbürgertum felt little attachment

to both traditional Jewish life and the synagogue. Contemporary observers noted that “the

synagogues were empty” and described the state of Judaism in Berlin as “chaotic,” although

these problems were seen to a lesser extent in Christian congregations as well.18 This religious

disaffection, in part, led growing numbers of Jews to convert to Christianity during the first

decades of the nineteenth century. By 1815, as evidenced in these graphs compiled by Deborah

Hertz from Nazi-era genealogical archives, conversions to Christianity among Berlin Jews had

spiked to almost 100 in a single year and the rate of conversion reached 2.8% (Figures 3.1 and

3.2). This growth was especially worrying due to its sudden onset; until the last decades of the

eighteenth century, there were fewer than ten conversions per year in the city.19

The gradual rise in conversions was both observed in the Jewish community and

considered cause for great alarm. In 1811, Jewish writer and activist David Friedländer (1750-

1834) was troubled by the monetary cost of conversion—as members of the wealthiest families

left the community, they took with them their contribution to the community tax base.20 Many

Jewish institutions such as benevolent societies and free schools which relied upon donations

17 Johann Gottlieb Fichte, “Beitrag ur Berichtung der Urteile de Publicums über die Franzöische Revolution,” in Saemtliche Werke, ed. J.H. Fichte, Vol. 6 (Berlin: Verlag von Veit, 1845), 149-150; cited in Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, 309. 18 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 107. 19 Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 101. 20 Friedländer used this point to argue for the passage of Jewish emancipation in a letter to Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg; awarding full citizenship to Jews, he posited, would lead to a drop in the conversion rate and conserve community resources, allowing Jews to contribute more fully to the state. Ibid., 101.

51

Figure 3.1: Converts in Berlin, 1800-1874 (number of cases: 4,635)21

Figure 3.2: Proportion of Berlin Jews Converting22

21 Ibid., 223. 22 Ibid.

52

from the rich were also facing challenges in fundraising; this was especially problematic because

left the community, they took with them their contribution to the community tax base.23 Many

Jewish institutions such as benevolent societies and free schools which relied upon donations

from the rich were also facing challenges in fundraising; this was especially problematic because

around half of the Jewish population of Berlin lived in poverty.24 In addition to the rising trend

of conversions, the Jewish community faced weakened legal powers of the rabbinate, decreasing

synagogue attendance, and shrinking observance of traditional laws and customs.25

While many Jews looked positively toward 1812 Edict of Emancipation, newly-granted

civil rights did nothing to reverse the growing trend of conversions. On the contrary, the Edict

revoked the rabbinate’s legal jurisdiction in all areas except for familial guardianship,26

effectively removing the last vestiges of Jewish autonomy and continuing to diminish the role of

Judaism in the daily routines of Berlin Jews. In the face of this conversion crisis, acculturated but

devout Jewish families like the Itzigs and Beers searched for a way to keep well-to-do youth

within the community while also reclaiming a position of respect within Berlin society. The

impossibility of realizing a fully German-Jewish identity had come to a head, but Jacobson’s

reforms presented a new way forward.

23 Friedländer used this point to argue for the passage of Jewish emancipation in a letter to Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg; awarding full citizenship to Jews, he posited, would lead to a drop in the conversion rate and conserve community resources, allowing Jews to contribute more fully to the state. Ibid., 101. 24 Steven Lowenstein, The Berlin Jewish Community: Enlightenment, Family, and Crisis, 1770-1830 (Oxford: Oxford University, 1994), 65; cited in Ibid., 134. 25 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 141-143. 26 Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, 141-143.

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1815: First Iteration of the New Reform Temple

After the collapse of the French-ruled Kingdom of Westphalia and with it Jacobson’s

position as head of the Westphalian Jewish Consistory, Jacobson drew upon his well-connected

contacts upon his arrival in Berlin in 1814. In previous years, Jacobson had made a name for

himself in the Prussian capital after assisting in negotiations toward the 1812 Edict of

Emancipation, the law which granted citizenship and certain rights to Jewish Berliners.27

Jacobson first settled into an apartment suite within the Itzig residence, then one of the most

prominent Jewish families in the city; after arriving, he soon began hosting pro-Reform activists

like David Friedländer, a former student of Moses Mendelssohn known for his radical opinions

on Jewish Reform.28 While Jacobson’s reforms had raised much ire in Westphalia after he

imposed a lesser version onto all the synagogues within the Kingdom, in Berlin he was greeted

as a moderate. Friedländer, for all of his essential work in obtaining emancipation, had alienated

many Jewish Berliners with his well-known desire to eradicate the “specific Jewish character of

the synagogue” and “reduce Judaism to a simple system of morals.”29

By spring of the next year, Jacobson made plans to host a private Sabbath service in his

apartment in a similar mode to his earlier services in Seesen and Kassel. Although the location

may seem strange, especially since Jacobson spent much of his own money to design and erect

purpose-built temples for his earlier services,30 domestic prayer rooms, or minyanim, were

27 Jacobson was first contacted by David Friedländer in 1812. At the time, Jacobson was a well-known figure in Haskalah circles for his successes in Westphalia, but he was also known to be a close business partner and associate of Karl August von Hardenberg, the key figure behind the 1812 Edict and numerous governmental reforms. Hertz, How Jews Became Germans, 100. 28 Jacobson and Friedländer were well acquainted with each other at this point, connected via their shared Reformist causes. As mentioned previously, Friedländer had reached out to Jacobson in 1811 for help in lobbying the government for Jewish Emancipation. 29 Caesar Seligmann, Geschichte der jüdischen Reformbewegung von Mendelssohn bis zur Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main: Kauffmann, 1922), 70; cited in Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 108. 30 “Nachricht aus Berlin,” Sulamith 4, no. 2 (1815): 66-70.

54

common in Berlin—by 1815, there were 13 such services throughout the city (although the

practice had been banned by the government since 1750).31

Jacobson first opened his New Reform Temple to a group of invited guests in June of

1815 to celebrate his son Naphtali’s confirmation on the festival of Shavuot.32 According to an

report published in the journal Sulamith that same year, around 400 Jews were in attendance,

along with several Christian clergy and officials. Jacobson’s sermon was intended to bring about

in the congregation “the cultivation of the new spirit, the religious feeling, the elevated mood,

devotion, ethics;”33 the atmosphere of palpable emotion expressed by the article’s unknown

author is antithetical to the negative qualities perceived by Jacobson within the traditional Jewish

service: overly formulaic, legalistic, and spiritless in character.34

Following the positive reception of this first service, Jacobson held a weekly Sabbath

service in his home every Saturday morning from 8 to 10 that was attended by a mixture of Jews

and sympathetic Christians. Jacob R. Marcus recounts the musical and liturgical structure of

these services in his biography of Israel Jacobson:

The room was lit up with candles, even though it was broad daylight. Jacobson led in prayer, pronouncing the Hebrew after the Sephardic manner… Men and women sat separately. The hat, of course, was worn. There was a choir in which children sang; an organ furnished the accompaniment. Christians, too, were employed in the choir. The most important prayers were still recited in Hebrew, although there were German prayers too. German songs were sung all through the

31 Meyer, “The Religious Reform Controversy,” 141. 32 This ceremony was described in an article in Sulamith, the Jewish pro-Reform journal discussed in Chapter 2. Confirmation was practiced in some Reform circles as a replacement for the Bar Mitzvah and later the Bat Mitzvah as well. Students would learn a catechism in question-and-answer style (of which there were many by the early nineteenth century) which was intended to “demonstrate that he had learned the principles and duties of Judaism as a religion.” Meyer, Response to Modernity, 39-40. 33 Nahum N. Glatzer, “On an Unpublished Letter of Isaak Martin Jost,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 22, no. 1 (1977): 129. 34 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 88.

55

service… The Torah, too, was read with the Sephardic pronunciation;35 there was no Ashkenazic intoning. Before the reading of the weekly portion from the Bible, Jacobson himself would preach… The Eighteen Benedictions were not repeated; the entire Additional, or musaf, prayer was omitted. Considerations of brevity, no doubt, underlay these changes. No definite theological motives seem to have found expression in this service, which, planned in the interests of expediency, was short, attractive, and not offensive to the Gentiles.36

Although the surroundings of the service had changed drastically, the content was remarkably

similar to the structure set out previously in Seesen and Kassel. One important change to note,

however, is the choir of both Jewish and Christian boys that sang in both Hebrew and German,

students from a local school led by writer and reformer Jeremiah Heinemann (1778-1855).37

As the popularity of the New Reform Temple spread, Jacobson began charging for tickets

to attend, at least on some occasions. The environment produced by Jacobson through the

abundance of candles, private setting, emotionally-charged sermons, and congregational singing

was highly affective, especially among the youth in attendance. Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), an

attendee who would later become a preacher in the Temple, described the passion that moved the

congregants: “men who after twenty years of alienation from Judaism spent the entire day at the

services; men thought to be above religious feeling shedding tears of devotion; the majority of

the young [kept] the fast.”38 Though the prestige of associating with some of the most influential

figures of Berlin was likely a motivator for the growing numbers of attendees, feelings of

religious devotion, as Zunz describes, were also a factor in the success of the New Reform

35 Although the decision to replace Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew with Sephardic is not clearly explained by Jacobson or his fellow Reformers, Michael A. Meyer hypothesizes that it may have been due to the belief that Sephardi pronunciation is historically closer to the original pronunciation of Hebrew, while Ashkenazi pronunciation was seen as “a distortion of the original classical form.” This fits with Jacobson’s desire to associate his reforms with ancient modes of worship. Meyer, Response to Modernity, 49. 36 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 109-110. 37 “Nachricht aus Berlin,” Sulamith. 38 Glatzer, “On an Unpublished Letter,” 130.

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Temple. The style of worship deployed in the New Reform Temple served to counteract the

lessened influence of religion in the lives of acculturated Jews, seen in the decreased observation

of ritual Jewish law, synagogue attendance, and philanthropic donations. By using the musical

forms and language which these disaffected Jews were most familiar with, the New Reform

Temple reconnected the Jews of the Bildungsbürgertum with their religion and their community.

Created through emotionally-charged sermons and congregational singing of well-

known German hymns, the Temple’s method of “communal worship” can be traced to

modernized Lutheran services of the time, as both sought to heighten “the spiritual awareness of

the worshipper in festive and highly aesthetic ceremonies.”39 While the Christianized music of

the New Reform Temple clearly signified a shared German culture, on a more foundational level

it also recreated the personal spirituality found in some strands of Lutheranism that were

informed by Pietism. A Lutheran reform movement that emerged in the late seventeenth century

and extended into the nineteenth century, Pietism espoused an introspective and intimate

relationship with God that allowed a believer to achieve Wiedergeburt, or rebirth through a

process of edification and self-cleansing.40

Instead of reacting with jealousy or offense to the success of the New Reform Temple

(some services attracted up to 400 guests according to a contemporary report,)41 the Orthodox

rabbis were surprisingly content to allow Jacobson’s private temple to operate because, as

Michael A. Meyer posits, “it seems likely that they were relieved at the opportunity to deflect

39 Baader, Gender, Judaism, and Bourgeois Culture in Germany, 28. 40 The belief in rebirth through self-improvement demonstrates a clear parallel to Bildung, a core tenet of German bourgeois society that was also essential to the character of Reform Judaism and the New Reform Temple. Hartmut Lehmann, “Pietism,” in the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195104301.001.0001/acref-9780195104301-e-545. 41 “Nachricht aus Berlin,” Sulamith.

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reforming activity away from the synagogue.”42 King Frederick William III, however, was

extremely displeased with the New Reform Temple since he first learned of it through a local

newspaper in November of 1815. Since the private temple broke the 1750 ordinance against such

domestic religious gatherings, the King ordered Jacobson questioned by the police; during his

interview, Jacobson claimed that “the community synagogue did not provide inspiration” and

that his service was “entirely in keeping with Jewish practice.”43 Regardless of the defense put

forward by Jacobson and his associates, the King issued an order on December 9, 1815 that

required all domestic Jewish worship gatherings in the city to be shut down immediately.44

1816-1823: The New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion

By the last months of 1815, Jacobson’s apartment was deemed too small to hold the

increasing numbers of guests; Jacob Herz Beer and Amalie Beer, parents of the composer

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), decided to house the Temple themselves, renovating several

large rooms in their own home at the considerable price of 7,000 Thaler.45 Even though the New

Reform Temple was relocated, Jacobson still worked closely with the Beers to coordinate the

weekly service and, for the most part, maintained the same music and liturgy within the Temple.

Although Jacob Herz Beer tried to convince the King otherwise, the New Reform Temple was

forcibly closed by the police.46

Over the next two and a half years, Beer, Jacobson, and other Reformers in the city made

multiple attempts to reopen the Temple, lobbying a number of politicians and the King himself.

42 Meyer, “The Religious Reform Controversy,” 141. 43 Paraphrase and translation from Meyer, “The Religious Reform Controversy,” 141. 44 Ibid. 45 Bilski and Braun, “The Power of Conversation,” 42. 46 Meyer, “The Religious Reform Controversy,” 142.

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Although many of the governing elders of the community sought to implement some form of

Jacobson’s methods in the city synagogue, they were countered by the more conservative

rabbinate in both political advocacy and action. In their preserved letters, the advocates for the

New Reform Temple put forth a variety of arguments and potential solutions for the situational

impasse, many of which centered upon the importance of using German, an accessible language,

to reach those in the community that had no knowledge of Hebrew (a striking parallel to the

justifications of Martin Luther).47 After the King rejected several proposals, the pro-Reform

elders of the synagogue came up with a solution that the King approved: the synagogue would

close to undergo “repairs,” allowing for the construction of a second room to house the new style

of services. Due to the closure of the synagogue, Beer and Jacobson were able to reopen the New

Reform Temple in August 1817 with the approval of the police.48 Based on the liturgical format

preserved in Die deutsche Synagoge, an 1817 guide to the Berlin Reform services authored by

two of Jacobson’s preachers, this later iteration of the Temple largely maintained the structure of

the previous version.49

In September 1817, the German-Jewish educator and historian Isaak Markus Jost (1793-

1860) attended the Yom Kippur service at the reestablished New Reform Temple, an experience

he recorded in a letter to his former teacher Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg. Jost held a negative

opinion about the execution of the service, complaining about the “old, scarred, out-of-tune

47 Ibid. 48 Interestingly, the King was unaware of the elders’ hidden motive; when he discovered that the New Reform Temple was re-opened, he underlined the temporary nature of this arrangement, saying that in the future, “the religious services of the Jews will be held nowhere else in Berlin but in this synagogue, and according to the traditional rite without the admixture of arbitrary innovations.” Ibid., 143-144. 49 Eduard Kley and Carl S. Günsberg, Die deutsche Synagoge: oder Ordnung des Gottesdienstes für die Sabbath- und Festtage des ganzen Jahres zum Gebrauche der Gemeinden, die sich der deutschen Gebete bedienen (Berlin: Maurer, 1817).

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organ” (“die verstimmte, locherige, alte, verrunzelte Orgel”) and the “new, clumsy, shrieking

choir” (“neue, ungeschickte, schreiende Chor”)50 composed of Christian and Jewish students

from the Heinemann school.51 The most useful aspect of Jost’s letter, however, is his detailed

description of the Temple’s design, decoration, layout, and seating, all of which he depicted in a

diagram included with his letter (Fig. 3.3) that was accompanied by a key (Table 3.1).

As Jost noted in his letter, the Beer family had undergone considerable cost and effort to

house the New Reform Temple, combining three large rooms; the middle room in which the

wealthy, intellectuals, and other honored guests sat was “romantically decorated with golden

tassels, gold-covered pillars, silken, gold-embroidered curtains, golden crowns, etc.”52 As shown

in his sketch, the remaining men and women sat segregated from each other, the typical practice

in synagogues of the period; although the men were seated in the right room (directly in front of

the choir and organ) and the women in the left, both were oriented to face the center room. While

the honored guests sat around the edges of the main room, this space also housed a permanent

chuppa, a canopy under which weddings were performed, the altar (which likely included the ark

and Torah), and the reading platform, or bimah. Offset slightly to the right was the pulpit from

which preachers like Leopold Zunz and Eduard Kley and gave their sermons. This arrangement

was relatively consistent with that of the Jacobstempel discussed in Chapter 2, keeping the

congregation’s visual attention on the rabbi and preacher—one essential difference, however, is

the visible and equal seating accorded to women, unlike the raised galleries of the Jacobstempel

50 Translation by Nahum Glatzer. Letter in the original German included in the appendix of “On an Unpublished Letter,” 129-137. 51 Before serving as a school director in Berlin, Jeremiah Heinemann (1778-1855) had served as Jacobson’s personal secretary in Westphalia and had written the text to a songbook of German hymns used at Jacobson’s services in Kassel. Eliezer Schweid, “Heinemann, Jeremiah” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007). 52 “Der mittelere Theil ist romantisch ausgeziehrt, strotzend von goldenen Troddeln, goldbedeckten Säulen, seidenen, goldgestickten Vorhängen, goldenen Kronen, etc.”

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Figure 3.3: Sketch of the New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion by Isaak Markus Jost53

Table 3.1: Labels from Jost’s Sketch in German and English54

53 Glatzer, “On an Unpublished Letter,” 132. 54 Ibid., 135.

Aa. Eingang für Frauen Entrance for women Ab. Eingang für Männer Entrance for men a.a.a. Fenster Window B. Orgel und Chor Organ and choir C. Sitze der Männer Men’s seats D. Sitze der Frauen Women’s seats F. Sitze der Magnaten, d.h. der

reichsten Seats of honor for the rich, intellectuals, and dignitaries

G. Baldachin zur Chuppe, feststehend über Säulen

Chuppa, with a canopy held above pillars

H. Altar Altar I. Ohren hakaudesch Reading platform, or bimah K. Kanzel Pulpit Nnn Sind Stühle Chairs

durchbrochene Wände Opened walls

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and many synagogues that required them to stand. Although this difference could be attributed to

logistical concerns, the seating is also reflective of the increased power and recognition of

women in the domestic sphere

The aesthetic, social, and domestic parallels between the New Reform Temple and the

Jewish salon extended to the role of music as well. The relatively hidden position of the choir

and organ, two of the most obvious makers of Christian musical influence, speaks to the function

of music within the service: to facilitate Bildung through, as Leopold Zunz described it,

“religious feeling.”55 In both the synagogue and the salon, music was an essential aspect of the

gathering but not the central purpose; music, like literature, conversation, theater, and rhetoric,

ennobled audience and performer alike through shared virtues. To bourgeois Germans of the

early nineteenth century, Bildung and spirituality alike were defined by a “self-reflexive and

introspective stance” that could be engaged through religious worship, cultural consumption, or

domestic tranquility.56 Though the use of Christian musical elements can be read solely as the

expression of a Jewish desire to conform to German culture, the music of the New Reform

Temple, like early Reform Judaism itself, reflects a more nuanced relationship between religion

and identity. Jacobson, Beer, and their congregation proudly claimed Jewish heritage and

maintained many prayers, texts, and rituals essential to Jewish worship—by adapting the

outward characteristics of worship into a form that replicated German modes of spirituality and

self-making, however, the Berlin Reformers enabled the creation of a harmonious German-

Jewish identity.

55 Ibid., 130. 56 Baader, Gender, Judaism, and Bourgeois Culture, 24.

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Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine

As in the salon of Amalie Beer, music was the primary aesthetic centerpiece for Temple

services.57 Both Jacobson and the Beers would often invite well-known Christian composers to

write music for their services such as Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) and Bernhard Anselm

Weber (1764-1821). Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864),58 the son of Amalie and Jacob, was also

asked on at least one occasion to provide music for the Temple which resulted in the Hallelujah,

a cantatine (or small cantata) for four male voices, organ, and children’s choir, only recently

published as a modern performing edition in 2016.59 In the fall of 1815, when the work was

composed, Meyerbeer was 23 years old and studying in Paris, a city which he believed to be “the

principal and most important place for my education in music drama.”60 As a young boy,

Meyerbeer had gained a reputation as a prodigy on the piano and as a composer, studying with

Zelter and Weber and performing for the diverse audience of his mother’s salon. By 1815,

Meyerbeer was an accomplished performer and composer: several of his works were performed

publicly and published and his former teacher Weber described him as “one of the best pianists,

if not the best pianist of our time.”61

57 Even before coming to Berlin or building the Jacobstempel, Jacobson accorded music a great level of importance in education and self-improvement. As Karl Ritter noted in 1806 after visiting the Jacobsschule, “[Jacobson uses] music as the most prominent aesthetic tool of Bildung.” Frassl, Die Jacobson-Schule in Seesen, 95. 58 Meyerbeer was given the name Jacob Liebmann Beer at birth; after the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff in 1811, he changed his surname to Meyerbeer; and in 1817, during his studies in Italy, he took the first name Giacomo. 59 Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah: eine Cantatine für 4 Männerstimmen mit Begleitung einer obligaten Orgel und des Chores ad libitum, ed. Hermann Max (Mainz: Schott, 2013). 60 Matthias Brzoska, "Meyerbeer, Giacomo," Grove Music Online, accessed April 26 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018554. 61 Brzoska, “Meyerbeer, Giacomo.”

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The Hallelujah Cantatine was written sometime between August 4th of that year, when

Meyerbeer received a letter from his father Jacob requesting that the piece be written,62 and

October 31st, when Meyerbeer’s close friend and New Reform Temple preacher Eduard Kley

(1789-1867) mentioned that the Cantatine had yet to be performed.63 In the letter to his son,

Jacob Herz Beer listed the guidelines for the composition: that it be written for four male voices

that would all sing the first verse, with the boys’ choir joining them on the “Hallelujah” refrain;

that there would be no instrumental accompaniment, only organ; “since there are no well-versed

singers, the upper voices should not be too high or the lower voices too low”; and that the vocal

lines should be “flowingly simple and without difficult modulations.”64

These qualities are all immediately evident in the score—Meyerbeer obviously scored the

work in regards to his father’s wishes, utilizing the boys’ choir only in the “Hallelujah” refrain

and including no other instruments aside from the organ. The musical lines for the organ and the

men’s chorus are also relatively simple, lacking complex ornamental figures, wide leaps, or

intricate ensemble writing (the four male voices are primarily in homophony with each other,

while much of the organ part utilizes block chords and eighth-note figurations). The harmony of

the piece is extremely consonant, with no complicated modulations or harsh dissonances even for

musical affect. Meyerbeer does, however, heighten the expression of the text through the varied

use of texture and dynamics: the word “silent” (“schweigt”) is marked pianissimo; the phrase

“praise God with Hallelujah” (“betet an mit Hallelujah”) moves from piano to subito forte on the

last word, which also functions as the chorus; and the phrase “You alone” (“Du allein”) is sung

62 “J.H. Beer an Meyerbeer in Paris,” in Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, Vol. I, ed. Heinz Becker (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter and Co., 1959), 280-281. 63 “E. Kley an Meyerbeer in Paris,” in Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, Vol. I, 294-295 64 “J.H. Beer an Meyerbeer in Paris,” 281.

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Example 3.1: Excerpt from Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah Cantatine, mm. 136-14065

solo, with the other three voices singing in response (Example 3.1). Meyerbeer also employs

falling fifths sequences in the organ line, a feature that was more commonly associated with

music from the Baroque era. The Hallelujah Cantatine breaks with tradition, however, through

its form: in composing the piece, Meyerbeer chose to bypass the traditional form of the cantata,

in which chorus alternates with solo recitative; instead, the music is organized into verses and

refrains typical of a Protestant hymn, with the organ providing a short prelude and postlude as

well.

65 Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah: eine Cantatine für 4 Männerstimmen mit Begleitung einer obligaten Orgel und des Chores ad libitum, ed. Hermann Max (Mainz: Schott, 2013).

65

The work itself is purposely simple in its construction: although Zelter knew and admired

Bach’s music,66 there is little evidence of the dense counterpoint or complex structures found in

Bach’s cantatas. Although choral conductor and early music specialist Hermann Max believed

that Meyerbeer’s avoidance of technical, formal, and harmonic complexity marked the Cantatine

as “the étude of a budding composer,”67 the expectations set down by Meyerbeer’s father

indicate that taste and aesthetic rather than lack of compositional ability determined the piece’s

style. Indeed, Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine can actually be understood as an ideal piece of

religious music within the cultural ideal of musical simplicity found within Christian sacred

music of the early and middle nineteenth-century. Many contemporary Protestant and Catholic

composers were informed by the bourgeois concept of Bildung when writing music for the

church: their music “appropriated the aesthetic ideas of classicism (likewise an offshoot of the

bourgeois spirit…formulated as ‘noble simplicity and silent grandeur.’”68

Berlin-based critic E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) described these values in his 1814

essay “Alte und Neue Kirchenmusik,” first published in an 1814 issue of the Allgemeine

musikalische Zeitung.69 In it, Hoffmann criticizes sacred works that draw upon “theatrical

gaudiness”70 and a “frivolous” style for their lack of substance—instead, Hoffmann argues that

true religious feeling is presented musically through an “austere, noble style” that “avoid[s] all

66 Over the past several decades, a growing amount of research has been published about the popular reception of Bach in certain circles of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Berlin, especially within the salon of Sara Levy. For more on this topic, see Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin, eds. Rebecca Cypess and Nancy Sinkoff (Rochester: University of Rochester, 2018). 67 Hermann Max, preface to Meyerbeer, Hallelujah. 68 Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Berkeley: University of California, 1989), 179. 69 E. T. A. Hoffmann, “Old and New Church Music [1814],” in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings: Kreisleriana, The Poet and the Composer, Music Criticism, trans. Martyn Clarke & ed. David Charlton, 351-376 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 358. 70 Ibid., 371.

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decoration,” refrains from using instruments apart from the organ, “preserve[s] the simplicity of

the chorale-like singing, which [is] not overwhelmed by a hotchpotch of accompanying figures.”

Furthermore, vocal lines should remain within a small, easily-navigable range, while the work as

a whole should be flush with consonance and lack the “striking modulations” of modern music.71

The music of Meyerbeer’s Cantatine fits almost entirely into Hoffmann’s model of ideal

sacred music; beyond the work itself, however, the mode of personal devotion practiced within

the New Reform Temple echoes the emotional spirituality that Hoffmann describes as motivating

the ideal religious music. Within this frame of mind, Hoffmann writes,

Chords and harmony become the image and expression of that communion of spirits, of that bond with the eternal ideal which at once embraces and reigns over us. The music which is purest, holiest, and most suitable for the church must therefore be that which arises from the heart purely as an expression of that love, ignoring and despising all earthly things.72

Similar language was used by the preacher Leopold Zunz to describe the environment of the

New Reform Temple that encouraged weeping and fasting among the congregants,73 a mood of

intense introspection that was present in some strands of Lutheran worship at the time.

The text of the Hallelujah Cantatine was likely contributed by Eduard Kley, a figure in

the New Reform Temple known for his sermons and hymn texts. In the letter to Meyerbeer

mentioned previously, Kley makes reference to “our Cantatine,” implying that he had a direct

hand in its creation;74 Matthias Brzoska associates the text with Kley as well.75 In the score

recently published by Schott, an editorial note provides the work’s text as printed in Gotthold

Salomon’s 1820 collection of sermons from the New Israelite Temple in Hamburg, the temple

71 Ibid., 358-360. 72 Ibid., 357-358. 73 Glatzer, “On an Unpublished Letter,” 130. 74 “E. Kley an Meyerbeer in Paris,” in Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, Vol. I, 294-295. 75 Brzoska, "Meyerbeer, Giacomo," Grove Music Online.

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that Kley founded in 1817 after leaving Berlin. The original German printed in the Schott edition

is included below.

Heilig! heilig! Gott der Welten, Heilig du, — dein Name sei heilig! Herrlich groß, sehr groß in deinen Werken, Alles ruft dir mit Entzücken Hallelujah! Betet an, o Staubgeborne, Er, der Heilige, erscheint. Miriaden Sonnen flammen, —er, der Heilige, erscheint. Schweigt, staunt und betet an mit Hallelujah. Könige der Erden, zittert, betet vor ihm, Nationen. Er ist aller Könige König, aller Herren Herr Gott nur ist’s. Hallelujah. Unerschaffner in den Höhen! Wer kann rein vor dir bestehen? Was nur Odem hat, vergehet; Du allein, du bist ewig, Zebaoth. Hallelujah! Singt dem Herrscher, Erdbewohner! Singet ihm Preis, ihr Kreaturen. In der Himmel Heiligthume Thront er ewig, herrscht er heilig. Hallelujah!76

Although a full analysis has yet to be undertaken regarding potential connections between this

text and traditional Jewish liturgy, a cursory examination reveals no exclusively Jewish ideas.

Kley’s text celebrates the glory of God and calls for the audience to praise and worship him:

“Silence, marvel, and worship with Hallelujah,” “Sing to the ruler, dwellers of Earth!” Kley’s

text is a poetic treatment that most notably recalls the Sanctus of the mass, which also begins

with a repetition of the word “holy” (heilig in German). Kley also references various excerpts

from the Old Testament such as Isaiah 6:3, in which an angel heralding God called out “Heilig,

76 German text included in the preface to Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah: eine Cantatine.

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heilig, heilig ist der Herr Zebaoth; alle Lande sind seiner Ehre voll!”77 Kley’s text is organized

into five stanzas that conclude with the interjection of “Hallelujah,” a structure that is reflected in

the verse-chorus form of Meyerbeer’s musical setting. Based on a service order of the New

Reform Temple that was published in Sulamith, it is likely that a musical work with a newly-

composed text like the Cantatine would close the service, as the eighteenth and final item of the

service was described as a “three voice edifying song” sung by a male chorus of worshippers.78

As one of the few surviving pieces of music utilized in the New Reform Temple (aside

from the songbooks of Protestant hymns sung to Hebrew text), Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah

Cantatine is an extremely valuable demonstration of how the Berlin Reformers used music to

express specific values of culture, politics, and identity. Unlike many of the chorale hymns used

in the New Reform Temple that repurposed traditional Lutheran melodies, the Hallelujah

Cantatine was newly composed, illustrating the musical values held by Meyerbeer and his father,

the host of the Temple. Simplicity and solemnity were prized over virtuosity and complexity, as

seen in the Cantatine’s “flowingly simple” vocal lines,79 limited orchestration, and consonant

harmonies. To a contemporary listener in the New Reform Temple, the Hallelujah Cantatine

would sound very different from the music of the opera and concert hall, more closely

resembling the plainly-constructed hymns sung by the congregation during worship. The work

was intended to function in context with the Reform service as a whole, reinforcing the

emotional yet decorous feeling of devotion inspired by the candlelit, “romantically decorated”

interior, moving sermons, and congregational singing.

77 Isa. 6:3 Luther Bible 1545. 78 “Nachricht aus Berlin,” Sulamith. 79 “J.H. Beer an Meyerbeer in Paris,” 281.

69

Although the Beers, Jacobson, and their fellow Berlin Reformers were able to sustain the

popularity of the New Reform Temple for six years, political struggles with the Prussian state,

Orthodox rabbis, and even among the Temple’s organizers were constant. At some point, the

leaders of the Temple were forced by popular demand within the congregation to hire the hazzan

Asher Lion (1776-1873) who later went on to succeed Aaron Beer as the hazzan of the Berlin

Synagogue. Although Abraham Idelsohn described Lion as “without a voice but with some

modern culture,” it is likely that he led at least some of the prayers or readings in the traditional

styles of synagogue song and cantillation.80 Meanwhile, the Orthodox Jews of Berlin began to

lobby the government to close the New Reform Temple, finally motivated to oppose it due to

“the prospect of a permanently divided synagogue,” as the current solution was to remodel the

synagogue to hold a second Reform service.81 Ultimately, the repairs to the synagogue were

completed in 1823 and the King, motivated by fears of religious schism and a desire to retain

control and order, agreed with the Orthodox rabbis that there should be only one service in one

location. Eight and a half years after Israel Jacobson opened his home for the celebration of his

son’s confirmation, the New Reform Temple’s final closure was ordered by King Frederick

William III on December 9, 1823:

Occasioned by the attached representation of a part of the local Jewish community, I once more determine hereby that the Jewish religious service shall be conducted only in the local synagogues and only according to the rite previously in use, without the least innovation in language or ceremonial, in prayers or in singing, and wholly in accordance with the ancient ordinances. I hold you [Jewish officials] under obligation to adhere strictly to this order and to tolerate no sects whatsoever among the Jews in my state.82

80 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 236 81 Meyer, “Reform Controversy,” 145. 82 Ibid.

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Conclusion

In the city of Berlin, where growing numbers of wealthy acculturated Jews were

converting to Christianity and the traditional influence of the Jewish elders and rabbinate had

shrunk, Jacobson’s reforms found another life in an explicitly bourgeois context. Although

Orthodox rabbis of the city viewed Jacobson’s service as a violation of religious law, the Jewish

Bildungsbürgertum gladly supported Jacobson in the face of increasing conversions. While the

core tenets of Jacobson’s agenda were continued in the New Reform Temple (use of German,

chorale-like hymns, organ accompaniment, sermons, etc.), the space in which his service was

held transformed drastically—from a small building in the countryside that resembled a

Protestant church, to a large group of rooms in a private mansion decorated with gold, candles,

and expensive fabrics. Within Jacobson’s apartments and later the Beer home, the Temple began

to take on the aesthetics of the salon and with it the intense, inwardly-focused religiosity

associated with Bildung and Pietist-influenced strands of Lutheran worship. Giacomo

Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine demonstrates how these ideals were realized in the “austere,

noble style” described by E.T.A. Hoffmann.83

While Jacobson’s replacement of the traditional Jewish music of cantillation and prayer

formulas with musical elements of Christian worship reflected a desire to align Judaism more

closely with Christianity, it is important to note that he and his fellow Reformers sought to

transform the character of Jewish worship rather than the content. The emotional yet mannered

atmosphere, amplified by the musical language typified in Meyerbeer’s Cantatine and the

congregational singing of hymns, expressed the German values of the Bildungsbürgertum in the

context of Jewish belief. At a time when conversion was seen by many as a prerequisite to

83 Hoffmann, “Old and New Church Music [1814],” 359.

71

membership in the German nation, the decision of those that attended the New Reform Temple

to actively claim Jewish identity cannot be discounted.

72

CONCLUSION

Although the New Reform Temple was open for less than eight years, the vision of

Judaism that it presented was highly appealing to Jews who were dissatisfied with the traditional

synagogue. Through the Jacobsschule, the Jacobstempel, and the New Reform Temple, Israel

Jacobson influenced many who went on to found or participate in later Reform efforts; the most

notable example was Eduard Kley, a preacher at the New Reform Temple who among many

other accomplishments wrote the text to Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine. In 1817, Kley had

grown frustrated after his ideas were deemed too progressive for Berlin and left for the city of

Hamburg. After teaching at the local Jewish school and holding public prayer meetings in the

manner of the New Reform Temple, Kley found enough interest to found the New Israelite

Temple Association with Jacobson’s assistance by December of that year.1 While Kley

organized his services with the same liturgical and musical features as in Berlin, the New

Israelite Temple gained permanency and stability where Berlin did not, staying open until the

events of 1938 forced its closure.2 A number of smaller temples inspired by Jacobson’s reforms

opened with less longevity or success such as in Karlsruhe, but even these supposed failures

served to spread the agenda of Reform; upon being reabsorbed into the Orthodox congregation

after three years, the Karlsruhe reformers were able to incorporate some of their ideas into the

traditional synagogue.3 In Leipzig, a semi-annual Reform service was held in occasion with the

city’s fleece fair that brought Jews from all over Eastern Europe; Jacob R. Marcus attributes to

these services the introduction of Jewish Reform in countries like Russia and Poland.4

1 Meyer, Response to Modernity, 54. 2 Ibid., 56-57. 3 Ibid., 57. 4 Marcus, Israel Jacobson, 127.

73

As Reform Judaism firmly established itself in the middle of the nineteenth century,

many of the new generation began to see Jacobson’s original program as entirely too radical.

Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890), the hazzan of the Vienna Reform Temple, characterized the

reforms of Berlin and Hamburg as “ill-fated.” Sulzer also believed that the new services were

founded on the untenable idea that “the regeneration of the service can be materialized only by

an entire break with the past,”5 constituting an outright and inappropriate rejection of Jewish

tradition. The liturgical music of Sulzer’s generation took the traditional modes, melodies, and

stylistic characteristics as its foundation, but were, in Sulzer’s words, “improved, selected and

adjusted to the rules of art.”6 Even Abraham Idelsohn, the Jewish musicologist whose work

heavily informed this project, wrote in 1929 that “with the abolition of the entire Jewish song,

the Jewish spirit was simultaneously forced out.”7

The songbooks of Kley, Jacobson, and other Reformers, in concert with independent

pieces like the Hallelujah Cantatine, represent an essential strand of the ideology and historical

context in which Reform Judaism came to prominence. In the future, I plan to further investigate

the published repertoire associated with early Reform, especially the published hymnals and

songbooks. Because music was such an essential part of this style of worship, the associations of

text and melody may illuminate the political, social, and cultural beliefs of the congregations that

used them.

The diverse historical and social currents at work within Jacobson’s musical agenda are

reflected in the services of the New Reform Temple and the events surrounding its popularity.

The discourse of early German nationalism and its ideal of an ethnic, Christian Volk isolated

5 Idelsohn, Jewish Music, 248. 6 Ibid., 249. 7 Ibid., 244.

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acculturated Jews from their claim to German identity. Familiar with German culture and raised

with the practice of Bildung but estranged from the Hebrew language and Jewish traditions, the

Jewish Bildungsbürgertum of Berlin was alienated from the synagogue and the Jewish

community, leading to an unprecedented spike in conversions. Within this context, Jacobson’s

reform became clearly defined as a way to not only maintain Jewish identity, but renegotiate its

boundaries to fit within the demands of German modernity. Through the deployment of

Christian-influenced music in Jewish worship, perhaps the most essential element of the Reform

service, Jacobson demonstrated a potential path toward the reconciliation of German and Jewish

identities.

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APPENDIX A: KOL NIDRE CHANT NOTATED BY AARON BEER (1739-1821)1

1 Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music in its Historical Development (New York: Tudor, 1929), 150-151.

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81

APPENDIX B: WENN ICH O SCHÖPFER, NO. 1, JACOBSON HYMNAL2

2 Israel Jacobson, Hebräische und Deutsche Gesänge zur Andacht und Erhauung, zunächst für die neuen Schulen der Israelitischen Jugend in Westphalen (Kassel: Waisenhaus Buchdruckerei, 1810). I would like to thank Dr. Joachim Frassl, who shared his images of the hymnal for this project.